Mysuru: Emotional scenes were witnessed at Mysore Palace premises this noon as all 14 Dasara jumbos, headed by Captain Abhimanyu, left back to their respective forest camps along with their Mahouts and Kavadis.

As soon as the trucks arrived to ferry them back to their respective camps, the jumbos became restless and were being calmed by their care-takers. The public present near them became emotional as they had developed a bond and tears filled their eyes.

Priest S.V. Prahalad Rao performed puja and offered fruits to Howdah Elephant Abhimanyu and other elephants near Trineshwaraswamy Temple in the Palace premises at about 12.30 pm. Public too offered sugarcane, jaggery and fruits before the elephants were led back to their temporary shelter.

Speaking on the occasion, Conservator of Forests (CF) Dr. Malathi Priya said that this year’s Jumboo Savari was held successfully on Oct. 12 and attributed the success to the efforts of Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) Dr. I.B. Prabhu Gowda, Range Forest Officer (RFO) Santosh Hugar, elephant caretakers and others.

She said that all the 14 elephants were healthy and will return to their respective camps later today besides stating that Abhimanyu carried the Golden Howdah with ease for the fifth time continuously. DCF Dr. Prabhu Gowda said that all the 14 Dasara elephants performed their responsibilities successfully.

Meanwhile, the Palace Board gave an honorarium of Rs. 15,000 each to 68 persons including Mahouts, Kavadis, care-takers, cooks and others, who had accompanied the Dasara elephants. The honorarium was distributed by Deputy Commissioner (DC) G. Lakshmikanth Reddy, who is also the Dasara Special Officer.

Palace Board Deputy Director T.S. Subramanya, ZP CEO K.M. Gayathri, DCF Dr. K.N. Basavaraju, Forest Mobile Squad DCF Dr. Chandrashekar Patil, RFO Santosh Hugar, H.D. Kote Probationary Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) Abhishek, Veterinarian Dr. Mujeeb, Palace ACP Chandrashekar, ACP (Traffic) Parashuramappa, Devaraja ACP Shanthamallappa and others were present. 

It may be recalled that the first batch of nine Dasara elephants — Abhimanyu, Varalakshmi, Dhananjaya, Gopi, Bheema, Lakshmi, Kanjan, Rohit and Ekalavya — arrived in Mysuru on Aug. 21 and the second batch of five elephants — Prashanth, Mahendra, Sugreeva, Doddaharave Lakshmi and Hiranya — arrived on Sept. 5. All the 14 Dasara elephants were boarded on the trucks when we went to the  press at 2 pm.