Special puja offered to Dasara elephants on occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi in Mysuru

Mysuru: On the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, special puja was offered to all 14 Dasara elephants at Mysuru Palace premises at around 12:30pm at auspicious Abhijin lagna on Saturday.

Forest officials led by DCF (wild life) Mysuru division I B Prabhugowda joined the puja and fed fruits, jaggery, modaka and other eateries to the pachyderms.

Mysuru Palace Board Deputy Director T S Subramanya, ACP Chandrashekar joined them.

All 14 Elephants Abhimanyu, Dhananjaya, Gopi, Bheema, Rohith, Kanjan, Ekalavya, Varalakshmi, Lakshmi Sugreeva, Mahendra, Prashantha, Doddaharave Lakshmi, Hiranya were lined up for puja at the backdrop of Mysuru Palace. As the guests offered floral benediction, they flanked their trunks.

Several tourists and people from Mysuru joined the puja and posed for selfies and photos with the gentle giants.

Priest of Ganapathi temple of Mysuru Palace, S V Prahlad Rao offered puja and said, "Since elephants are the form of Lord Ganesha, every year they offer special puja to them on Ganesh Chaturthi."

RFO Santhosh Hoogar, Veterinarian Mujeeb Ur Rehman and others also joined the puja.

First batch of nine Dasara Elephants reached Mysuru on August 21. They are participating in training for Dasara Jamboo Savari procession on the procession route or Raja marga from August 25. The second batch of five Dasara Elephants arrived on September 5 and joined the training from Friday evening.