Second batch of elephants arrives in city of palaces

Mysore, Oct 2, DHNS

The second batch of Dasara elephants arrived at the Palace premises here on Saturday afternoon.

Six jumbos-Srirama, Kanthi, Vikrama, Kavitha, Mary and Harsha were given a ceremonial welcome by the forest officials on their arrival. These elephants would be part of the first batch of jumbos led by howdah elephant Balarama to take part in the Vijayadashami procession, to be held as the grand finale of the nine-day Dasara festivities. In all, the 12 elephants would camp in Palace premises for the next 20 days till the Dasara celebrations come to an end. The mahouts and their families of the six elephants also accompanied the jumbos. The 53-year old Srirama is brought from K Gudi camp and has took part in Dasara for 13 years. While, Kanthi and Kavitha took part in Vijayadasahami for seven times and are brought from the same camp. Vikrama from Dubare camp will be taking part in Dasara for 10th time and Harsha from Dubare has took part in dasara festivities for 11 years. The elephant Mary will be taking part in Dasara for 10th time and is brought from Sunka- dakatte camp(Hunsur). As part of the annual affair, six out of the 12 dasara elephants started their sojourn for Mysore. The first batch of these elephants who include Balarama, Sarala, Varalakshmi, Arjuna, Abhimanyu and Gajendra arrived at Aranya Bhavan in Mysore on Friday evening. The pachyderms will be given a ceremonial reception at the Mysore palace on Monday. District Incharge Minister Suresh Kumar offered a grand valedictory to the elephants. His wife K H Savithri, Hunsur MLA Manjunath, dasara special officer and Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta, Mysore Mayor Satish Swamy and senior forest officials along with elected members from taluk and Grama Panchayat and people from surrounding villages joined him. The day was marked with students of Nagapura tribal hamlet presenting a dance to dasara theme song, a Tibetan dance and a folk dance from girls from Morarji Residential School, Hunsur. A Jenukuruba (tribal) dance and Devara Kunitha off the stage also attracted people gathered there. Chairman of Karnataka Housing Board and former minister G T Devegowda joined the folk artistes to tap his foot to the folk tune and songs. The second batch of elephants comprising Srirama, Harsha, Vikram, Kanthi, Mary and Kavitha will arrive in Mysore after a fortnight. For the next one and half month, the dasara elephants would be stay put in Mysore palace till the Jumbo savari ends on Oct 17. Courtesy of Dan Koehl and Elephant News