The makeshift tents that have been put up for participants of the adventure camp on Thursday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Gurubari Mandi (14) of Matiabandhi has never seen a TV screen in her life. A Class IX student of Chakulia’s Matiabandhi Vidyapith, Mandi and her family live under the shadow of rebel guns. Till Thursday, her definition of adventure was watching the drills of CRPF jawans at a picket on her school premises.

Sagen Besra (14) of Bakrakocha village, Dumuria block, is probably a tad better off. A student of Chakulia’s KNJ High School, Sagen has watched his idol Team India skipper M.S. Dhoni play on the lone TV set in their school. A budding cricketer himself, Sagen had played in the Subhash Kunj Trophy tourney in Musabani and hoped of making it big someday. That was before rebels slit the throat of a villager on October 28, 2011, putting a stop to all sports.

After years of gloom, more than 250 students like Gurubari and Sagen stepped out of the shadow of rebels to take part in a adventure sports on Thursday — a first-of-its-kind attempt by East Singhbhum district administration and state tourism department.

A four-day camp, which kicked off at Dimna reservoir and Dalma on Thursday, has a number of activities such has parasailing, powerflying, hot air ballooning, rock climbing, trekking, rappelling, terrain crossing and zummaring.

Day One of the camp, saw instructors demonstrating the finer details of rock climbing, trekking, rappelling, terrain crossing on Thursday to a section of eager students. Another group enjoyed the thrills of water sports like banana ride, water surfing, kayaking and air bubble ride (water zorbing) in Dimna Lake. Apart from Dalma, Seraikela-Kharsawan’s Kandra will be the other spot where the land adventure sports would be held.

East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Himani Pande said that their main of organising such a programme was to help students from rural areas stay in the mainstream of the society and not get swayed by rebel influence. Pande said that the adventure sports would also serve as a good break for the students from their daily academic lessons.

“We are excited by the superb response to this programme. We want to hold this event later this year,” Pande said.

Officials, led by SSP Akhilesh Kumar Jha, attended the inauguration of the event. District superintendent of education, Sushil Kumar, who was also present at the inauguration, said that 250 students would camp for four days, while a rotating group of 100 would join them daily.