Mysuru: This time, the Dasara High-Power Committee meeting will be held in Mysuru on Aug. 28 at D.C. Office. The meeting will be chaired by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. This was disclosed to Star of Mysore this morning by Higher Education Minister G.T. Devegowda, who is also the Mysuru District Minister.

The meeting, all these years held in Bengaluru, will be organised this time in Mysuru as Kumaraswamy will visit city to attend the 103rd Jayanthi celebrations of Sri Shivarathri Rajendra Swamiji at Suttur Mutt on Aug. 28. Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu will inaugurate the celebrations and Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala will preside.

At that meeting, it will be decided if Dasara 2018 will be a grand affair as planned earlier or a low-key affair due to natural calamity in Kodagu. District Minister, Tourism Minister S.R. Mahesh, Kannada and Culture Minister Jaimala will attend the meeting along with a host of top-level officers and representatives from Mysuru, Mandya and Chamarajanagar, the Minister said.

On Gajapayana, the march of elephants to Mysuru from the jungle camps to participate in Dasara, the Minister said that the Dasara High-Power Committee will decide on the date. In all probability, the meeting will give a green signal for the Gajapayana on Aug. 29 as any postponement of the date will shorten the training period for the elephants to participate in Vijayadashami procession.

Dasara 2018 commences on Oct. 10 and the Jamboo Savari will be held on October 19, on Vijayadashami Day. The elephants need at least one-and-a-half months of training for the grand event and will need to be fed and well-trained for them to bear the strenuous training regime.

Mysuru Deputy Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Sidramappa Chalkapure told SOM that they were ready to bring the elephants from various elephant camps in Kodagu. As soon as the Gajapayana date is announced, we will bring the elephants. It is mandatory to obtain the green signal from the Dasara High-Power Committee, he said. In all, 12 elephants will arrive for this year’s Dasara. In the first batch, Arjuna, who will carry the Golden Howdah, Balarama, Drona, Abhimanyu, Chaitra and Varalakshmi, will arrive in the city. In the second batch, Dhananjaya, Vikram, Gopi, Gopalaswamy, Cauvery and Vijaya will arrive.