Mysuru: Weight of Dasara jumbos was checked at a 59 year old lorry weighing bridge on Dhanvanthri road in the city of Palaces Mysuru on Saturday morning.
Abhimanyu who will carry golden howdah for fifth time in Dasara Jamboo Savari procession this year,weighed the highest of 5560kgs.
Other Dasara Elephants Dhananjaya weighed 5155kg, Gopi-4970kg, Bheema-4945kg, Ekalavya-4730kg, Kanjan-4515kg, Rohith-3625kg, Varalakshmi-3495kg, Lakshmi-2480kg.
Last year after Dasara when they left Mysuru to their respective forest camps Abhimanyu weighed 5460kg and his weight has now increased by 100 kg. Bheema weighed 4870 kg and his weight has increased by 75kg.Varalakshmi weighed 3225kg and her weight has increased by 270kg. Dhananjaya weighed 5180kg and his weight has decreased by 25kg. Gopi weighed 5240kg and his weight has decreased by 270kg. Kanjan weighed 4505kg and his weight has decreased by 10kg. Rohith weighed 3620kg and his weight has decreased by five kg.
After a small pooja, the gentle giants started marching towards the weighing bridge from the North gate of Mysuru Palace by around 8am. A magnetic metal detector/scanner attached to the escort vehicle which moved ahead of them, screened for nails or any metals to ensure they don't prick the feet of Elephants. Police and Traffic police escorted them, guarded their security and even cleared the traffic for them.
In the entire stretch of 3km upto weighing bridge, they received rousing welcome by the people who stopped by to have a glimpse of the Elephants. They even clicked videos, photos and selfies as usual. Several flower vendors at Devaraja market offered flowers to the Dasara guests. Forest officials DCF (wild life) I B Prabhu Gowda, RFO Santhosh Hoogar, Veterinarian Mujeeb Ur Rehman and other forest department personnel, accompanied them.
In the meantime, a mega Jumbo kitchen is all set to prepare special nutritious food for Dasara Elephants at Palace premises, to prepare them for Vijayadashami procession. Cooks led by veterinary assistant Rangaraju prepare boiled rice cooked with jowar, green gram, black gram, wheat, vegetables, onion salt. They serve it with at least half kg butter to each Elephant, before their training in the morning and after the training in the evening. Also after their training in the morning and before their training in the evening, they feed Elephants with Kusre-paddy, coconut, jaggery, groundnut cake and sugarcane packed with hay straw. During the day, Elephants green grass and branch fodder (leaves of Banyan tree). With this besides improving their stamina for the big day, their weight is also expected to jump further before they return to their forest camps after Dasara.