Adivasi Students to Set Record on June 21 International Yoga Day

 Visakhapatnam: Adivasi students of north Andhra Pradesh are preparing to set a new record on International Yoga Day at the RK Beach in Visakhapatnam on the morning of June 21.

“Guinness World Record will be set when 25,000 tribal students from 99 schools in ASR district perform the Surya Namaskar on the beach,” disclosed collector A.S. Dinesh Kumar.

Talking to this correspondent on Saturday, he said in the process, they will be breaking their own record set on April 7 this year on the occasion of World Health Day. Around 21,850 tribal students from five mandals in Paderu district, including 13,000 girls, had come together to perform 108 Surya Namaskars, thereby setting the world record.

The ASR district collector recalled that the record-breaking initiative had been preceded by five months of rigorous yoga practice, with students of tribal hostels waking up at 4 a.m. daily to train. Adding international prestige to the occasion, Alice Raynaud, manager of the London World Records Union, travelled from Chennai to oversee the event and certify the world record.

Regarding the June 21 event, Dinesh Kumar said the students will be taken to Visakhapatnam one day in advance to familiarise them with the local environment.

On the other hand, Vizianagaram officials said they will mobilise 40,000 people to participate in the International Yoga Day in Visakhapatnam on June 21. “We will take them by buses, autos and other modes of transport vehicles, so as to reach the RK beach during the early hours,” an official stated.

Srikakulam collector Swapnil Dinkar Pundkar said they will not transport people to Visakhapatnam but organise the International Yoga Day within the district at 650 places in which over eight lakh people will participate.

Parvathipuram Manyam collector A. Shyam Prasad said two busloads of Yoga trainers will be sent to Visakhapatnam on June 21.