RISHIKESH
The standard first-timer adventure run, commonly rated Grade II-III/III+, with rapids like Roller Coaster and Golf Course. Only book operators licensed by the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board, with a rescue kayaker on the water, a real pre-trip briefing and sound helmets and jackets. Confirm the day's actual route at booking rather than last season's itinerary - names, distances, minimum ages and approved put-in points on this river change with water level and government instructions.
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.
