Dasara jumbos return home after a grand show

Mysuru: In many ways, it was a return to business as usual for the jumbos of the various camps deployed for the Dasara fete in Mysuru each year – after a Covid-enforced hiatus, the elephants had the opportunity to delight the surging crowds after two years of low-key affairs. Having stolen the show with an unblemished performance on the last day of the Dasara fete, the elephants, after resting at the Mysore Palace for a day, returned to their respective homes on Friday.
Abhimanyu, the howdah elephant at this year’s Dasara, along with 11 other jumbos, were sent home after a traditional farewell ceremony, which included a puja. In order to ensure that Lakshmi, who welcomed a male calf Sri Dattatreya during her sojourn in Mysuru, and her calf did not suffer the ordeal of a commute through the congested city streets, the foresters sent the duo, along with another female elephant Chitra, to the Rampura Elephant Camp in Bandipur Tiger Reserve in the early hours of Friday. The foresters consulted veterinarians before sending the calf and his mother back to Bandipur, and ensured that all precautionary measures were taken.
Later, around 10.30am, the foresters offered puja to the 12 jumbos, including Abhimanyu, before loading them to the trucks that were to ferry the elephants to their respective camps. Among others, Mysuru mayor Shivakumar, deputy commissioner Bagadi Gaitham, deputy conservator of forests (wildlife) V Karikalan, DCF (Mysuru circle) Kalama Karikalan and Mysore Palace Board deputy director TS Subramanya participated in the farewell ceremony.
The elephants for the annual fete were requisitioned from five different camps, and have now safely returned to their home, along with their mahouts and kavadis, and their children, all of whom parted from each other after a joyous sojourn in the Heritage City. The elephant handlers, and their families, were provided breakfast, and the palace board gave each of them Rs 10,000 in acknowledgement of their services.
Abhimanyu, Bheema, Mahendra and Gopalaswamy returned to Mattigodu in Nagarahole, while Arjuna is back in Balle, also in Nagarahole. Meanwhile, the Dubare camp in Kodagu welcomed Vikrama, Dhananjaya, Cauvery, Gopi, Srirama and Vijaya, while Parthasarathy, the youngest tusker among the lot, returned to Rampura in Bandipur. The officials confirmed that all the jumbos had returned to the woods safe and sound.
One tough tusker
An otherwise hassle-free operation was upset by 40-year-old Srirama, who was none too keen on the idea of being boarded on to a truck. While the other elephants were mounted to the transport vehicles easily by the foresters, Srirama proved a tough nut to crack. Starting from 10.55am, it took the foresters more than 100 minutes to tuck the stubborn tusker into the truck. Incidentally, Srirama had been equally reluctant to bord the truck when he made his journey to Mysuru. Bearing this in mind, the foresters had him chained lest he go out of control. Fellow jumbos Dhananjaya and Sugreeva’s efforts to force him into the truck failed, and it fell to Abhimanyu, well-versed in combing operations, to goad Srirama into the back of the vehicle. Mahendra and Sugreeva ensured that Srirama had no room to cause trouble.