Elephants begin march on Dasara procession route in Mysuru

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

 Mysuru

Marking the beginning of  Mysuru Dasara-2022, a team of elephants led by the howdahcarrying jumbo Abhimanyu marched on the main roads of Mysuru City on Sunday.

 Before the rehearsal, a special puja was performed on the palace premises to ward off any evil or unforseen events.

Then they marched from the palace premises up to Bannimantap Ground, a five km stretch passing via Sayyaji Rao Road, Ayurveda College Circle, Bamboo Bazaar Road, Fountain Circle. Since the march of jumbos was held early in the morning, the joggers and walkers captured them on their mobile phones.

As precautionary, three police patrol vehicles guarded the visitors from the wild and to prevent the people from rushing towards the jumbos to take selfies. Before the jumbos marching, the procession route was thoroughly swept to check for any sharp nails or other sharp objects that may cause injury for the Dasara jumbos.

 As the jumbos walked majestically, the sound of the bell hanging around its neck resonated in the whole Street. Each elephant was looked after by a mahout and a kavadi.

In fact, there was no rehearsal for the Dasara elephants in 2020&2021 due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.

In both years, the procession was held within the palace premises sans tourists and public. This time, thanks to fewer Corona positive cases so far, the government has decided to celebrate Dasara-2022 in a grand scale.

 The rehearsal from Palace premises up to Bannimantap Ground would continue till Dasara festival daily morning and evening.

 Deputy Conservator of Forests Karikalan said the rehearsal has started from today and it would continue till the festival.

 The weight of every elephant was done two days ago and all of them are hale and healthy.

 The main purpose of holding rehearsal on the main road if City was to make them acclimatize to the city atmosphere.

The rehearsal with weight would begin from next week, he added