RISHIKESH
The standard Grade III/III+ run with rapids like Roller Coaster and Golf Course. Only book operators licensed by the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board — unlicensed rafts (identifiable by no rescue kayaker following, no pre-trip safety briefing, cracked helmets, or more than 8 people per raft) carry a ₹50,000 fine for the operator and are where nearly all rafting deaths happen.
Shivpuri, a small village on the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway roughly 16km upstream of Rishikesh, became the epicenter of organized commercial rafting in India starting in the 1990s as adventure-tourism outfits and the state Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN, formed in 1976) began running Ganga trips here. This is the flagship Grade III/III+ stretch that established Rishikesh's reputation as India's white-water rafting capital, with rapids named Roller Coaster and Golf Course among its best-known features.
