World's biggest Santa on Orissa beach

Puri: Indian sand artiste Sudarsan Patnaik is busy creating a gigantic Santa Claus on a beach in Orissa that he claims will be the biggest such sand sculpture in the world.

Patnaik said that he had informed the Limca Book of World Records to record his achievement in his home city Puri.

"The Santa Claus we are going to create will be 100 feet long, 30 feet wide and 15 feet high. I and 15 students of my Golden Sand Art Institute would sculpt the image using an estimated 1,000 tonnes of sand," Patnaik said.

"We have already begun work. It will be ready on Christmas eve," he said. Patnaik has taken part in some 30 international sand sculpture championships across the world and won many awards.