Elephants relax after Dasara at Mysuru Palace, set to return to camps on Monday

Mysuru: After successful completion of their prime task in Dasara Jamboo Savari procession on Saturday, Dasara Jumbos relaxed at Mysuru Palace premises on Sunday. After 49 days of stay in Mysuru, they are all set to return to their respective camps on Monday after a puja.

Forest officials, mahouts and kaavadis who trained and managed them, were all happy about completing the procession successfully.

"The elephants did their task smoothly in the procession, and all are healthy. All 14 Elephants were decorated and their photographs were taken" said DCF (wild life), Mysuru division I B Prabhu Gowda.

Mahout of Abhimanyu Vasantha, said, "It has been my privilege to do the seva of Goddess. I am happy that Abhimanyu did the job gracefully," he said.

RFO Santhosh Hoogar said, "Abhimanyu covered the distance of the Procession route on Saturday in 2 hour 40 minutes," he said.

The forest officials arranged special lunch and dinner for Mahouts and Kavadis on Sunday as a gesture of appreciation for managing all the Elephants well during the procession. Mysuru district administration will pay an honorarium of Rs 15,000 each for all of them.

Caparisoned Dasara Elephants remained prime attraction of Dasara procession. Nagalingappa R Badiger, and his team had decked up the ears of the elephants with designs of shanka, chakra, forehead with Soorya Chandra, trunk with gandaberunda, edge of the trunk, legs and tail with designs of creepers and flowers, parrot above tusks, and leaves around the eyes. They drew white outlines and filled them with yellow, red, orange and green natural colours.

During their stay in Mysuru even as the Elephants were fed with nutritious food, they are returning with extra bulk.

Maththigodu

Abhimanyu who carried golden howdah for fifth time in the procession, will return to Maththigodu camp of Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, with his mahout Vasantha and Kaavaadi J K Raju. Bheema will also return to the same camp with his mahout Gunda and kaavaadi Nanjundaswamy. Mahendra will return to the same camp with mahout Rajanna and kavadi Mallikarjuna.

Dubaare

Dhananjaya who performed the role of Nishaane Elephant replacing Arjuna, will return to Dubaare camp of Kodagu wildlife division along with his mahout J C Bhaskar and J S Rajanna. Gopi who performed the role of Naufat Elephant will return to the same camp with his mahout P B Naveen Kumar and kaavaadi J R Shivu. Kanjan too will return to Dubaare camp with his mahout J D Vijaya and kaavadi Kirana. Prashantha will return with his mahout J A Chinnappa and kavadi Chandra; and Sugreeva will return with mahout J G Harish and kavadi J B Shankar to the same camp.

Ramapura camp

Lakshmi who performed the role of Kumki Elephant along with Abhimanyu will return to Ramapura camp of Bandipur Tiger reserve with her mahout Chandra and kavadi Krishnamurthy. Hiranya who also performed the role of Kumki Elephant will return to the same camp with her mahout Shafi Ulla and kavadi Mansoor.

Bheemanakatte

Varalakshmi who supported other Elephants at the camp will return to Bheemanakatte elephant of NTR along with her mahout J K Ravi and kaavaadi K S Lava. Rohith will also return to same camp with his mahout Syed Usmaan and kaavadi Maadu.

Doddaharave Lakshmi will return to Doddaharave camp of Hunsur division, along with mahout Manjunath and kavadi Ravi.

During their stay in camps, many of these Elephants will participate in the operations to capture tigers and elephants.

After a grand Gajayapana event at Veeranahosahalli of Hunsur taluk, the first batch of nine Elephants arrived at Aranya Bhavan in Mysuru on August 21. They stayed at Mysuru Palace premises on August 23. The training to familiarise the Dasara procession route for Dasara Elephants began on August 25. Training to carry weight began on September 1. Second batch of Elephants arrived on September 5. Training to carry wooden howdah began on September 18 and their final rehearsal was held on October 10 .