Mysuru: District Minister Dr. Yathindra Siddaramaiah has hinted that Dhananjaya is likely to carry the Golden Howdah during this year’s Jumboo Savari.
But when media persons had asked CM D.K. Shivakumar, who was in city to chair the Dasara Progress Review Meeting at the Zilla Panchayat (ZP) auditorium on Oct. 3, about who would carry the Golden Howdah this year, the CM had stated that the Forest Department will select the howdah elephant and the Department was providing necessary training to the elephants & monitoring them.
But District Minister Dr. Yathindra, who was next to the CM, said that the howdah elephant would be selected only after the Forest Department completes the training procedure and also said ‘most likely Dhananjaya,’ thus giving a hint on the future howdah elephant.
Following the retirement of Abhimanyu, who had carried the Golden Howdah six times, the Forest Department officials were in a fix as to whom to be given the responsibility of carrying the Golden Howdah. Following the arrival of Dasara elephants to the city, the Forest Department has begun training Prashantha, Dhananjaya, Ekalavya, Mahendra and Sugreeva to carry weight besides monitoring their behaviour.