Weight-bearing training begins for Dasara elephant Abhimanyu in Mysuru

After a week-long training to familiarise the first batch of nine Dasara elephants with the Jamboo Savari procession, training started for howdah bearer Abhimanyu to carry weight equivalent to 750 kg golden howdah, which it will carry during Vijayadashami procession.

Flanked by female elephants Lakshmi and Varalakshmi, Abhimanyu carried 600-kg sand bags on procession route from 8:38 am, after a small puja at Mysuru Palace premises, on Sunday.

DCF (wildlife), Mysuru division I B Prabhugowda said that a special team comprising Rangaraju, Akram, Rehan, Murthy, Swamy and others placed a leather cover over Abhimanyu to ensure that the weight doesn't affect its skin.

A cushion of Namda (made of coconut fibre), Gaadi (made of hay straw), Chaapu (made of coconut fibre, which is thinner and smaller in size to match the size of howdah) was placed.

Special team ties Namda, Gaadi, Chaapu, Metal cradle to Howdah bearer Abhimanyu to place sandbags for training.

An iron cradle was tied over it with a rope and sand bags weighing 600 kg placed. He completed the training in three hours five minutes, covering a total distance of 11.9 km (from Palace to Bannimantap ground and back). Abhimanyu did the job at ease, he said.

RFO Santhosh Hoogar explained that accompanied by elephants Dhananjaya, Gopi, Bheema and Rohit, Abhimanyu started from North gate of Mysuru Palace and passed through KR Circle, Sayyaji Rao road and reached Bannimantap ground in one hour twenty minutes. He rested there for 20 minutes. The sand bags were removed at Bannimantap and he walked back to Palace premises in one hour 15 minutes, he said.

Prabhugowda said that they plan to train other male elephants Dhananjaya, Mahendra, Sugreeva and also new elephant Ekalavya to have standby/second line elephants to carry weight in case of emergency. The weight of sand bags would be increased gradually. Later, they will be trained to carry wooden howdah with weight equivalent to golden howdah. Since Kanjan is still having pain in his leg, he was not taken for training on Sunday too, he added.

Along with DCF Prabhugowda, RFO Santhosh Hoogar, Veterinarian Mujeeb Ur Rehman and other forest department personnel too accompanied them.

Metal detector

Magnetic metal detector/scanner attached to the escort vehicle moves ahead of elephants on procession route to detect and attract nails or any metals to ensure they don't prick the feet of jumbos. They are continuing to get a lot of metals, including nails and other substances screened by the detector, according to officials.

"People should refrain from throwing any sharp metal objects on the procession route," priest who offered puja to elephants, Prahlad Rao appealed.

Police and Traffic police are escorting elephants, guarding their security, clearing traffic during training on procession route every day. People from different parts of the day are rushing along with kids every day, to have a glimpse of elephants during their training.

After the jumbos arrived at Mysuru Palace premises on August 23, training to familiarise Dasara procession route began on August 25.