Nirvana Adventures was born in Kamshet, India in 1997 and has since been extending a hand to anyone interested in joining the magical world of free flying. Today we are a full fledged adventure company and the preferred paragliding school. Our numerous students and visiting pilots come here from all over the world. Many of them coming back every week, every month or annually, many think of it as a second home, a place where they can fly and make new friends. Thank you all for breathing life into our world and helping us create a vibrant, seamless paragliding community.
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It all began with the discovery of the sites in 1996/7, with time, energy and dedication Nirvana became a pioneering paragliding school that in turn led to the transformation of Kamshet into a paragliding destination.
When Nirvana Adventures first began we had big dreams and a big wish list to achieve. The area was remote and paragliding was unheard of in the region. We concentrated on creating basic infrastructure to meet our immediate needs.
To create the basic infrastructure we involved the local village community at all stages – from making tea and drinking water available to supervised parking at Shelar, to ISD telephone at Balus, to initiating the use of the local jeeps in the area (a Herculean task).
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We're commemorating the decade long journey undertaken together with our students and visitors.
Let’s take a look at how we fared in achieving the big goals 10 years later.
- To offer safe, standardized training to people from all over the country
- To build a paragliding community in the country
- To open the sites at Kamshet to the world paragliding community
- To ensure that our activities enriched the life of the locals
- To encourage eco friendly tourism and to preserve the beauty of the area for generations to come
 Offering safe, standardized, training, and an encouraging atmosphere, to anyone wanting to give paragliding a try.
From its very inception Nirvana Adventures followed the USHGA pattern of training. Over years of training, learning and experience converted to the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association’s (BHPA) progressive training program that ensures a safe standardized system of training and progress in paragliding. We use state of the art equipment and follow international norms on glider usage and procurement.
The Native Place guesthouse
Built in 2003 Native Place is one of a kind paragliding guesthouse purpose built to house the school, instructors, students and pilots. It runs on ecologically sound principles.
Popularizing the sport in the country
Since its inception Nirvana Adventures has been successful in publicizing Kamshet and the sport of paragliding to such an extent that we can conservatively claim responsibility for popularizing the sport across the country. To date we have an impressive amount of media coverage beginning from 1998 that has helped garner interest in the sport all over this vast country.
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Nirvana in The News
We have held training camps at Goa and Bangalore, and exploratory free flying trips to various parts of the country. Our website is frequently updated and has adequate information for anyone looking to learn about the sport.
Flying Trips
To pave the way for the international paragliding community to share the air in Kamshet, we began accepting visiting pilots since the 1999. Since then hundreds of pilots have made their way here and we have many instances of pilots returning here two, three and even 4 times from across the continents.
Pilots Speak
We have built a community of students and pilots whom we actively encourage to stay with the sport. Our students have come to us from all over the world and are an example of the global village because when we talk of the local paragliding community it encompasses people living in various parts of the Indian subcontinent and the world.
Students Speak
Pilot Profiles
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Working with the local community
We have put in sincere efforts to build a rapport with the local people. Kamshet is mainly rural and people earn their living off the land.
Today CSR is a catch word but from its inception Nirvana Adventures has kept the principles and spirit of CSR alive in its everyday working. Ravi, Bandya and Sandeep, three young people have been absorbed into the Nirvana Adventures instructor’s team. Native Place too employs 5 locals on a permanent basis, the maintenance crew is also local and all our provisions come from local markets or are sourced directly from the people in the vicinity. Scholarships to deserving students, taking part in the local festivals in a meaningful way, generating employment, contributing to and interacting with the local schools have been an ongoing endeavor.
Encouragement of eco friendly tourism
As in the bulk of the country living outside the cities and main towns the infrastructure is still thin. The people here have less in terms of running water, electricity, roads and transport, fuel, food etc. We consciously, ensure that we use these resources mindfully and encourage our guests too to minimize their footprint as well.
Preserving the beauty of the area for the coming generations
We have grown many indigenous trees at our base and are vigilant about keeping the area and our sites pristine. We report on the status of the endangered vulture population in our area to the Peregrine Fund a US based NGO. We actively encourage guests to take away their plastics from the flying sites and conduct periodic cleanliness drives to keep the sites clean.
Guiding Principles
Active in the Field
Here’s to another 10 years of
Peace Bliss & Happy Landings and hoping to see more people join us in the skies. |
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