Army personnel practice Yoga at Northern Command on the eve of Yoga Day in Ladakh on Saturday. (Source: File photo/ PTI) Army personnel practice Yoga at Northern Command on the eve of Yoga Day in Ladakh on Saturday. (Source: File photo/ PTI)

Border Security Force (BSF), the country’s largest border guarding force, has decided to replace the routine physical training drills for its jawans and officers with yoga. The decision to replace the daily 45-minute physical training drills with yoga at all its units was taken by BSF Director General K K Sharma after 1,900 personnel of the force recently completed a special training under the tutelage of Baba Ramdev at his facility in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar.

“Yoga has been made mandatory in the force and the jawans and officers will now undergo regular training in this skill. The routine PT exercises will be replaced by yoga,” the DG told reporters. He added that a committee of senior officers of the force has been constituted that will suggest if, apart from yoga, any other physical exercises are required to be included in the daily regime of the 2.5 lakh personnel-strong force.

Ramdev had conducted a special 10-day session for the personnel of the force at his Patanjali yoga institute which ended earlier this week. Sharma had recently said the paramilitary force has decided to “intensify” yoga training of its troops and the aim is to have at least one trainer in this discipline in each platoon-level formation.

A platoon, comprising about 35 personnel, is the minimum strength of an operational team in the force. Yoga acts as a stress buster and it is important for the men and women of the force, as they are deployed in some of the most difficult areas as part of their duties in border guarding and internal security domain, the BSF Director General had said.

BSF guards India’s two important borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh apart from conducting anti-Naxal operations in the Left Wing Extremism hit states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

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