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Yoga keeps soldiers in shape
03/04/2006 16:01 - (SA)
New Delhi - The Indian army has turned to an ancient tradition in a bid to keep soldiers in shape at its high-altitude bases in Kashmir. It is teaching its fighting men and women yoga.
While many outside of Asia tend to think of yoga in terms of meditation and finding inner peace, the stretches it requires provide excellent exercise - especially on remote mountaintops where even the shortest of runs can leave the physically fit gasping for air.
The army's top brass also believes yoga can help keep stressed-out soldiers alert, and has made yoga a regular feature of training given to soldiers assigned to "high-stress areas," said the army's spokesperson in Kashmir, Lieutenant-Colonel V K Batra.
"Yoga helps soldiers to convert negative stress into positive energy, which is necessary for alertness. And alertness in these areas can mean life or death," Batra said.
"The yoga initiative began late last year, when we trained a batch of 100 soldiers" how to do yoga, Lieutenant Colonel Latika Mohan was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency. The officer commands a hospital unit based in the Kashmir region of Ladakh, which rises from 3 350m to 4 570m.
"The soldiers gave up drinking and smoking. Their physical fitness level increased and their mental faculties sharpened," he said.
India keeps tens of thousands of soldiers posted along the mountainous frontier separating its part of Kashmir from Pakistan's portion of the region, over which the rivals have fought two of their three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.
Both nations claim all of Kashmir, and among the disputed peaks is the Siachen Glacier, the world's highest battlefield, where troops face off atop a 6 100m icy expanse.
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