Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey (centre), accompanied by art, culture and youth affairs minister Sukhda Pandey (left) and mountaineer Santosh Yadav, addresses the concluding ceremony of First Youth Adventure Sports Festival at Moin-ul-Haq Stadium in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Paragliding and parasailing were the stuff of dreams or television shows for Patna Women’s College student Akansha before the adventure sports festival in the state capital. The three-day-long event that concluded on Sunday helped her fulfil them.

“It was thrilling,” said Akansha. “I had only watched such events on TV earlier.”

She was not alone: around 2,500 students of government schools and colleges, who took part in the First Youth Adventure Sports Festival at Moin-ul-Haq Stadium, also got a taste of other exciting sports like artificial rock climbing and rappelling.

Their dreams need not end with the fest, though. The state government promised to organise more such events in the future.

Art, culture and youth minister Sukhda Pandey, who attended the closing ceremony, said: “This was just the beginning. In coming years, we shall organise more such events on a larger scale.”

She added: “We want to arrange more such events in Rajgir, Rohtas and Gaya.”

State health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who was also the chief guest at the closing ceremony, thanked the Everest School of Adventure Training for helping the state government organise the event.

The state art, culture and youth affairs department, in association with Everest School of Adventure Training, Bihar Adventurous Sports Academy and Navjivan Kalyan Samiti, organised the festival to promote adventure sports among Patna residents.

Mangal Thakur, a member of the Everest School of Adventure Training team, said: “Our primary concern is to promote adventure sports not only in the hilly terrains of Himalaya but all over the country. This is a step in that direction.”

He added that adventure sports like paragliding, parasailing and river rafting are more popular in Himalayan states such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Thakur said: “In Manali, where Santosh Yadav Everest Academy is located, you can easily find a mountaineer or trainer in each household. Adventure sports are so popular in Manali that people from other states come in large numbers to get trained.”