NEW DELHI, June 6 (Xinhua) -- As massive preparations are under way in India to celebrate the International Day of Yoga on June 21, the central government has asked the state-owned space agency to map the celebrations across the country using satellites.
A top government official has said the country's yoga ministry has written to the state-owned space agency, seeking its help in mapping the event participation across India using satellites, local media reported Wednesday.
"We have written to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief and asked him if he could help us in mapping the event participation across the country using their satellite," the ministry's special secretary Rajesh Kotecha was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times newspaper.
"He has given us in principle approval," he added.
International Day of Yoga is celebrated across the country every year since 2015, with main events being hosted in the national capital and the cities of Chandigarh and Lucknow. This year the main event is to be held in the hilly state of Uttarakhand's capital Dehradun.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is a huge yoga enthusiast and practices it daily, will lead the celebrations in Dehradun. It was he who had lobbied the United Nations to declare June 21 as the International Day of Yoga.
