CRPF personnel practice yoga to reduce stress in Srinagar

personnel of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have been practicing yoga here to to reduce stress and boost endurance levels.

Security personnel undergo extreme mental and physical stress while performing their duty in insurgency-hit valley.

As per reports, in the past, many personnel in Kashmir or other militancy-hit areas have taken extreme steps of committing suicide under stress and depression.

In a bid to boost morale and calm their minds, yoga has been introduced in the valley.

"Yoga boosts thinking and endurance levels. They are able to perform duties efficiently even in areas prone to stone pelting. It increases immunity as well," said yoga instructor Ram Mohan on Tuesday.

Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir is increasingly dependent on homegrown, educated fighters with the highest number of local youth joining in two decades, according to recent Indian army data.

The trend represents a new threat in the region where Muslim separatists have been fighting Indian forces since 1989.

Meanwhile, soldiers said that practicing yoga every morning enhances concentration and clears their minds of any wrong doing.

"Yoga helps us fight mental stress. It keeps us busy and diverts our attention from family. There are multiple benefits of yoga. We take classes here during which yoga instructor imparts good lessons," said a paramilitary officer, Sanjay Kumar.

In September last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first United Nation address encouraged more people to take up yoga, the spiritual practice that predates the Islam's arrival in India.

Modi said that yoga should not be just an exercise, but it should be a means to get connected with the world and with nature, calling on the United Nations to adopt an International Yoga Day.

Two months late in November, he created a ministry for yoga- AAYUSH.