Rafting and Kayaking
White Water Rafting - Many a river in the country specially the North Indian Rivers present themselves as a collection of the best white water in the world within a small geographical location (taking in to account only North India). A number of Lakes in the Kumaon Region and The Ganga with its upper tributaries (Alaknanda, Bhagirathi and various other smaller tributaries) can be hailed as the Queen of the White Water Rafting Industry.
The Indian Association of Professional Rafting Outfitters (IAPRO - website www.iapro.org) is the nodal body that coordinates and controls the white water rafting operations in the country with the help and support of active white water rafting outfitters in the country. All rafting outfitters must have a mandatory permission from the state tourism departments for running operations on any river in the country.
White Water rafting in India can be broadly classified in to two categories namely, Day trips (a few hours of fun) or Multiple Day / Expedition runs. Day trips are offered on the following rivers
Ganga - Uttaranchal Teesta - Sikkim
Beas - Himachal Pradesh Kaveri - Karnataka
Braham Putra - Assam
The rivers for expeditions in the country are classified as follows
Alaknanda, Bhagirathi, Maha Kali, Sarda, Saryu, Yamuna - Uttaranchal
Sutlej - Himachal Pradesh
Zanskar, Indus - J&K
Brahamputra - Assam
Teesta - Sikkim
Lohit - Arunanchal Pradesh
Please check out the IAPRO website to locate an outfitter to help you with planning and executing the program. Apart from these rivers many other rivers are also available for expeditions but a lot depends on the available resources with the outfitters. Chenab in J&K and Pindar in Uttaranchal are some of the other rivers that fit the expedition bill just waiting to hit it bigtime.
Kayaking
White Water Kayaking & White water kayaking courses - Most licensed outfitters can organise an introductory course on White Water Kayaking at their riverside camps on the Ganges. Rishikesh is your best bet if you want to learn with good instructors and good equipment as majority of the knowledge base in the white water scenarios is concentrated in Rishikesh and nearby reaches of 40 odd Kilometers upstream on the Ganges.
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