Elephant Arjuna has been assigned the task of carrying the golden howdah again this year during the Mysore Dasara procession. Senior elephant Balarama will be the stand-by if such a situation arises.

Speaking to SOM here on Monday, DCF (Wildlife) Devaraj said that 14 elephants would arrive for Dasara with the first batch to commence its journey from Nagarahole forest on Aug. 28.

Arjuna, with Kumki elephants Sarala and Varalakshmi will arrive from Balle camp, Balarama and Abhimanyu from Thithimathi and Gajendra from K. Gundi in BR Hills. The first batch will be the special guests for 48 days. They will enter the Palace premises on Aug. 30.

The second batch of six elephants will arrive three weeks prior to Dasara with Sriram coming from K. Gudi, the young Gopalaswamy from Thithimathi to be joined by Vijay, Vikram, Harsha and Kaveri from Dubare. It has been requested to send two more elephants Gopi and Prashanth from Dubare, explained Devaraj added that veterinarians Dr. Nagaraj, Dr. Umashankar and Dr. Prayag had visited the elephant camps and prepared the list of elephants that were found fit to participate in Jumboo Savari. He said that probably Dr. Nagaraj would be again the in-charge of maintaining elephants and a confirmation from the department in this regard was awaited.

Courtesy : Star Of Mysore