The elephants from the jungle camp who were in Mysuru for Dasara and covered themselves with glory with impeccable performance during the Jamboo Savari on Tuesday, will head back to the forests on Thursday.
They will be accorded a ceremonial send off and it will be adieu for elephant Abhimanyu and 13 others until their return during Dasara next year.
The elephants were brought to Mysuru in different batches about 45 days before the commencement of the festival so as to let them acclimatise to the urban milieu and familiarize themselves with the procession route.
In all, there were 14 elephants which were brought for Dasara and underwent rigorous training by way of daily walk along the 5 km long procession route and return to the palace; carrying 750 kg of wooden replica of the howdah etc. Given the nature of their task the Dasara elephants used to be fed with special diet to enable them to gain weight and strength so as to withstand the rigorous of the Dasara procession.
Abhimanyu who weighed 5,160 kg on September 6 added 140 kg by September 27 and his weight as on October 25 was 5,460 kg. He put on 300 kg during his sojourn in Mysuru but it was Bhima who gained the most weighed among all the elephants; he put on 500 kg during the same period but he weighed 4,870 kg and was lighter than Abhimanyu. Elephant Mahendra weighed 4,835 kg and put on 305 kg during his stay in Mysuru while Dhananjaya measured 5,180 kg and added 240 kg during the same period.
Elephant Gopi weighed 5,180 kg which was 240 kg more than when he arrived at Mysuru in September while Kanjan measured 4,505 kg and has put on 265 kg during the same period. The other elephants including Vijaya, Varalakshmi, Arjuna, Sugriva, Prashanth, Rohith, Hiranya and Lakshmi also added weight during their stay in Mysuru. But out of the 14 of them female elephant Vijaya managed to put only 15 kg. She was also the lightest of all the elephants and weighed 2830 kg when she came to Mysuru in September and measured 2,845 kg on the weighing scale on Wednesday.
All the elephants will head for their respective jungle camps on Thursday. Meanwhile, the district administration and the authorities extended their warm greetings to the mahouts for effectively managing the elephants. The mahouts also received a free ride on the KSTDC double decker Ambari on Wednesday evening to see the city lights.
