Mysuru bids an emotional farewell to festival jumbo team

Mysuru: The elephants team led by captain Abhimanyu, which had arrived from the forest for the celebration of state festival Dasara and had been camped in the premises of the Cultural City Palace for the past two months, started their journey towards the forest reluctantly.

There was an emotional situation was created in the palace courtyard when the elephant team was bid farewell. The people , officers and forest department staff who had gathered on the spot bid farewell to elephant team with a heavy heart. . Even the children of the mahouts

and Kavadis, who were staying in palace premises with enthusiasm , picked up their bags and reluctantly left for native places. The people of Mysore, who used to enjoy seeing the elephants every day, bid farewell to the team with pale faces.

Under the leadership of Purohita Prahladrao, officials of the Palace Board and Forest department officials washed the feet of the elephants and offered traditional pooja. The elephants were fed with various fruits and sugarcane. After the puja, breakfast was served to the family members of the Mahouts and Kavadigas. The Palace Board gave Rs 10,000 each to 50 mahouts and Kavadis as honorarium.

A total of 14 elephants had arrived in Mysore in two teams for Dasara celebrations. This is for the first time the elephant team added one more elephant while returning back to forest. The elephant Lakshmi gave birth to a calf Dattatreya at palace premises. In the morning Lakshmi and her calf sent to forest in first trip to avoid the crowd which may affect boarding of lorry.

The people of Mysore gave anemotional farewell to the elephants leaving the palace premises. Those on the road waved and showed their love to the elephants. This is for the first time elephant Sri Rama was hesitant to board the lorry. The mahouts brought another two elephants to push Sri Rama into lorry.

But the elephant behaved stubbornly and later boarded the vehicle after 4 more elephants forced him and pushed him into the lorry.

Speaking to this paper DCF V Karikalan said that he has been participating in Dasara since last six years. He said he has never seen this many people in earlier years and said the festival was great success this year. Mayor Shivakumar, District Collector Dr. Bagadi Gautam, Deputy Director of Palace Board TS Subrahmanya, DCFs Dr. V. Karikalan, Kamala V. Karikalan, Veterinarian Dr. Mujeeb and others were present.