Harjinder Singh Chander training for an earlier undertaking, running the Queenstown marathon in overalls and gumboots. The Henley dairy farmer is running around Dunedin’s Octagon for 24 hours on Christmas Day, to celebrate the success of Indian farmers who have been protesting against a new farming law for the past year. Indian farmers have been fighting Section 13 of the Indian Government’s Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act 2020 because they believed it would gut the country’s Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees. Mr Chander said the long-distance run was also to raise funds and awareness of mental health issues — particularly among farmers, who were not very good at talking about their mental health. He had previously run the Queenstown marathon in gumboots, he ran for 15 hours up and down Mt Cargill in gumboots and overalls, and he completed the 326km Alps2Ocean Ultra.

Source: Otago Daily Times December 23, 2021 23:38 UTC