Agartala, India Feb 6 Rattled by an increase in fratricidal killings, the paramilitary and the army have taken recourse to yoga to relieve stress that affects troops posted in inhospitable terrain and in insurgency hit areas.

A select group of army and paramilitary personnel were trained here recently in a six-day yoga camp conducted by Swami Ramdev to enable them conduct special sessions among their colleagues.

'In order to hold regular yoga and psychology camps and classes in all formations to bring down levels of stress, some army and Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers were trained by Baba Ramdev recently,' a BSF official told IANS on condition of anonymity.

'This has been done in view of the killings of colleagues by soldiers in a series of incidents in Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and the northeastern states caused by a high degree of stress,' the official said.

During his visit, yoga guru Ramdev laid the foundation stone of Patanjali Yoga Bhavan at the Gokulnagar BSF complex, near the state capital.

'A border man guarding and protecting the territory of the country is at par with a saint,' said Ramdev while addressing BSF personnel at Gokulnagar.

While sharing his concern towards long separation of soldiers from their families coupled with high professional challenges, Ramdev stressed upon the concept and benefits of a joint family system in society.

Significant enthusiasm was witnessed among the paramilitary troopers when the yoga guru took classes to enrich them both morally and physically.

'I have already introduced yoga in BSF a few months ago as a means of reducing stress,' said BSF Tripura frontier inspector general Suresh Kumar Dutta.

According to an army official here, a core group of around 20 demonstrators and instructors drawn from different formations were also trained by a team from the Swami Ramdev Yoga Institute at the Nagrota - based 16 Corps headquarters in Jammu and Kashmir.

'They would hold anti-stress camps in units and brigades across Kashmir,' the official said.

'Special psychological council cells would also be formed in field formations at the brigade, division and corps levels to focus on lowering stress levels among soldiers in militancy-hit zones and arresting the trend,' the official added.

Courtesy of Earth Times.Org