Jill McGivering The BBC's South Asia correspondent

The parents of a young British traveller who went missing while paragliding in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas have called off the search for their son, Joel.

The 25-year-old adventurer was last seen three and a half weeks ago starting a solo paragliding flight in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

Bill and Angie Kitchen from Essex travelled to India to take part in the search, but they failed to find any trace.

Joel Kitchen was last seen on 7 April

They spent their life savings paying for initial helicopter searches.

An Indian businessman in London also contributed and paid for them to fly out to the region to work with local police, organising teams of trekkers and police officers who went out into the mountains for days at a time.

Joel's girlfriend, who had been travelling with him, distributed hundreds of posters in the region, helped by local volunteers.

Now Joel's father has asked the authorities to call off the search.

They did not want anyone else to be put in danger, he said - and it was now their wish for Joel to be left to rest peacefully in the mountains.