Minister formally opens tent school, tent library, health unit for Mahouts, Kavadis and families

Mysore/Mysuru: Health and education will be the focus of this Dasara when it comes to the elephant caretakers and the Government has taken a special interest in setting up tent schools to educate the children of Mahouts and Kavadis. Nature-based treatment methods like Panchakarma have been provided to Mahouts and Kavadis and their families, said Mysuru District Minister S.T. Somashekar.

He was speaking during his visit to the Mysore Palace on Monday, where he inspected and formally inaugurated the tent school and also interacted and danced with children. He complimented the District AYUSH Department for setting up a nature-based treatment unit inside the Palace to take care of the health needs of Mahouts, Kavadis and their families.

There are many facilities in the AYUSH treatment unit including Panchakarma, massage treatment in case of body pain and minor ailments. After a tiring day, if the elephant caretakers fall ill, the treatments help them rejuvenate quickly and attend to their duties, the Minister said.

Massages, treatment and medicines are being given free of cost and also, immunity-building medicines are being distributed among the forest dwellers and their children so that they can be healthy in a city environment, said Dr. Pushpa, District AYUSH Officer.

A tent library too was inaugurated by the Minister and there is a wide collection of children’s books that will help them in personality development. The library has been set up in association with the Department of Libraries.

General books on entertainment, colouring and drawing, storybooks, art and craft activities, literature on developing environmental consciousness at a young age, yoga and other activities are available in the library.

Over 200 books, 5 newspapers and 5 magazines are made available in the library which is open from 9.30 am to 1.30 pm, every day.

Zilla Panchayat CEO B.R. Poornima, Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK) Chairman Shivakumar, Deputy Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Dr. V. Karikalan, RFO Santosh Hugar, Mysore Palace Board Deputy Director T.S. Subramanya and others were present.