Mysuru: Forest department shortlists 14 elephants for Dasara Jumbo Savari

Mysuru: Though the State government is yet to decide on the scale of celebration of traditional Mysuru Dasara festival, the forest department has initiated the process of selecting ceremonial elephants for the world famous fete.

Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government scaled down the celebration and restricted number of elephants for participation in the festival to just five instead of traditional 15 last year.

The preparation for Dasara begins two months earlier to prepare elephants for the grand procession. The forest department officials have written a letter to the Mysuru deputy commissioner to specify the number of jumbos needed for the procession. But the district administration is waiting for decision of State government.

District in charge minister S T Somashekar recently said that the decision would be taken at a high-level meeting in Bengaluru. However, the forest department has started the process of selecting the elephants for the Jumboo Savari (Vijayadashami) on October 15.

On Saturday, the forest department officials selected Dasara jumbos at four major elephant camps, namely Mattigodu, Doddaharave, Dubare and Anekadu. Respective camp officials and veterinary experts took part in the exercise.

Health check-up of every elephant was conducted and 14 were shortlisted. The selected elephants include Golden Howdah carrier Abhimanyu from Mattigodu camp and Gopalaswamy, Lakshmana and Bhima.

DCF V Karikalan, RFO Ananya Kumar of Kushalnagar and veterinarian Dr Chittiyappa and other officials were present during the selection process. The list will be sent to the office of PCCF, Bengaluru.

It will be presented before Dasara High-power Committee meeting to be chaired by the Chief Minister, The meeting date is not decided due to Covid-19 related restrictions.

The selected Dasara elephants will be given extra care. They will be provided more nutritious food and regularly monitored for their health as they have to stay at Mysuru Palace for two months.

The mahouts and assistants with families will be shifted to palace premises so that they can take up rehearsals for the grand procession.