The great Brahmaputra descent: In their wildest of dreams, they’d never thought they would go rafting on this part of the river’s course, supposed to be the most turbulent, with furious, roaring rapids. But the dream is about to come true for five young men, from different professional backgrounds, who became friends because of their shared passion for adventure sports, especially white water rafting.

Last year, on one of their rafting trips on the Bhagirathi, they heard stories about the ‘real’ adventure of scaling the mighty upper Brahmaputra from their group leader Vaibhav Kala. Thirty-year-old Vaibhav, a chemistry graduate from St Stephen’s, Delhi University, who’s now in the travel trade,had taken a military expedition eight years ago on the challenging grade 4 and 5 rapids over a stretch of 180 kms on the Siang (the river’s local name in Arunachal). The Army had its own reasons for this expedition, mainly security, because of the proximity to China.

But Vaibhav’s tales caught the imagination of his friends – Niradh Grover, Sachin Bhatia, Keyur Joshi and Milan Moudgill. They too wanted to go there. Vaibhav, however, dismissed this ambitious plan. After all, he alone knew how difficult it was to go there. Also, the Government may not allow this trip to happen.

But these spirited young men would not take no for an answer. “Our team work finally got us permission from the government to go rafting on this river,” says Milan, a graphic designer and student of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. “We never thought it would become such a big event.” As they soldiered on, they not only managed to get sponsors but also caught the interest of the international press.
Adds Vaibhav Kala, “This section of the Brahmaputra is normally off-limits to foreigners, due to its proximity to China.”

The team’s aim is simple. They want to put India on the international white water map. “So far India has hardly been synonymous with adventure, it is known more as a cultural destination,” says 48-year-old Solil Paul, who has a degree in law from Ann Arbor, Michigan. After teaching law in Delhi University, he threw it all up to start Aqua Terra Adventures, an adventure sports company,  which is helping organise this trip.

Planned between November 22 and December 6 (when it’s warmer up there), this descent on the mighty Brahmaputra will mark the first commercial, non-military expedition on the river  in this politically sensitive region.

The Brahmaputra has always been shrouded in mystery. “Even the British tried several times to send expeditions to find out the origin of the river,” explains Niradh Grover, 35, a commercial pilot-turned-free-lance travel writer, also part of this trip.

India’s only ‘male river’,  the Brahmaputra enters the country in the eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh after travelling hundreds of miles across Tibet as the Tsangpo from its birthplace, the Mansarovar lake. The river is at its fiercest just before it enters India at Gelling. An incredible flow of two million cubic feet per second slices through a fabled gorge known as the “Big Bend.” The Siang is as big as the Amazon and Colorado in whitewater terms.

“It is the wilderness, the isolation and the cultural experience of meeting the Adi tribes of this belt that make this journey even more interesting,” says an excited Keyur Joshi, 29, an MBA from the University of New York, who runs an online travel company.

“The idea of getting first-hand information about these tribes, who are most inaccessible, is very exciting,” agrees Sachin Bhatia, 30, a marketing professional.
The trip is not for the faint-hearted. For three days, the group will travel from Dibrugarh, Assam, by river ferries and off-road vehicles, through rainforests, all the way to Tuting, a village in Arunachal. That’s where they will get on the river.
Over the next eight days, they will descend the 200 km stretch to Pasighat, also in Arunachal, in three rafts and kayaks, tackling   the challenging grade 4 and 5 rapids (grade 6 is suicidal). As to the risks involved, no one seems perturbed. The rapids are vast but the Brahmaputra is a pool-drop river, which means that after every rapid, it becomes calm.

“The problem is more from the logistic point of view of carrying food and shelter,” says Vaibhav. There will be a back-up team of 22 people, of which seven will be the safety kayakers, mostly foreigners.

The mission is to “document this unexplored area and submit a report to the government which has been very helpful. So far, no videos have been made on this river (like the videos  we have of the Amazon) to attract people to this spot,” says Vaibhav.

Conquering the foaming rapids of this formidable river is an adventure the five young men are not going to forget in a hurry.

Grading river rapids

Grade I: Easy, small waves. No obstacles.
Grade II: Moderately difficult.
Grade III: Narrow passages, raft needs precise manouvering.
Grade IV: Powerful waves, hydraulics and recirculations.
Grade V: Extremely violent. Only experts can do this grade.
Grade VI: Suicidal.