Mysuru: Vikram finishes weight test in 20 minutes

Mysuru: Dasara elephant Vikrama continued to train for the arduous task of carrying 750-kg golden howdah at Mysuru Palace for the second day on Friday.

Abhimanyu will have the tough task of carry the howdah at Mysuru Dasara jumbo savari on October 26. But along with Abhimanyu, other elephants Vikrama and Gopi too are being trained to carry weight. They are being trained as second line to prepare them for Dasara in the coming years. Abhimanyu was also trained to carry weight in the past 18 years.

On Thursday, a sand-bag weighing 350 kg was tied to Vikrama, which it carried around 1.5-km around Mysuru Palace within 20 minutes along with Abhimanyu, Gopi, Cauvery and Vijaya. They were trained by turns to carry weight. On Saturday Gopi will get training to carry the same weight too. And the weight of sand-bag will be increased gradually.