Cut in training time for Dasara jumbos becomes big cause for worry

MYSURU: Unlike previous years, elephants participating in ‘Naada Habba’ Dasara will be having less time to acclimatise themselves with the hustle and bustle of the city this time. With Jamboo Savari, the last leg of Navaratri scheduled to be held on October 19, the pachyderms that form the centre of attraction during the piece-de-resistance will be left with hardly 40 days to prepare for the annual event.

‘Gajapayana’, the ceremonial march of the first batch of elephants from Veeranahosahalli gate in Nagarahole National Park at Hunsur taluk in the district is scheduled to be held on September 2. In the first batch, there will be six elephants including Arjuna, the howdah carrier.

They will be ambling into the Palace premises on September 3 with the rehearsal starting from September 4.

The event earlier slated to be held on August 23 had to be postponed for a week due to floods in neighbouring Kodagu district, with the government diverting its attention towards rescue operations and relief works.

Forest veterinarian Dr Nagaraj who has been shouldering the task of preparing the elephants from over a decade told The New Indian Express, “We will be left with hardly 40 days to prepare the animals as against 50 to 60 days available earlier. Though the elephants start their training from September 4, they have to be acclimatised with the condition in different phases. While two days before Jamboo Savari will be dedicated for dress rehearsal, it will be a break from the monotonous exercise on Ayudha Puja, a day ahead of the mega event.”

Increase in diet

The second batch of six to seven Dasara elephants are expected to arrive in a fortnight, said Nagaraj about the challenge that indeed becomes bigger with not less than 12 elephants to be trained. Hence, we are mulling over increasing the quantity of diet to make up for the lost time, but only after taking into account the readiness of the animals. It’s indeed a challenging task. As is the routine, once the jumbos are camped, they will be taken on routine five km walk up to Bannimantap that forms the Jamboo Savari route without mounting any additional weights. In the later days, sand bags will be mounted and eventually the wooden howdah, the veterinarian added.

Types of diets

The elephants will be fed with both special diet and normal diet.
The special diet forms boiled green gram and black gram, onion, wheat topped with butter in the form of a ball. It will be given at 6.30 am before going for rehearsal and later in the evening at 6 pm.
The normal diet includes — coconut, jaggery, peanuts in powdered form and paddy straw. It will be given after returning from the rehearsal in the morning and also in the evening  hours.

First batch of elephants

In the first batch, elephants Arjuna, Balarama, Drona, Abhimanyu, Varalakshmi and Chaitra will be coming to the city. Initially, there was uncertainty over Balarama, Drona and Abhimanyu coming in the first batch as they had been deputed for an operation to capture a rogue elephant at Ramanagar.
As the operation ended on Friday, they are expected to come in the first batch only. However, elephants Gopi, Dhananjaya and Vikram have been readied as alternatives, said Nagaraj.