Mysuru:  With the count down for Dasara festivities already begun, Forest Minister R. Shankar distributed kits containing articles of daily use to Mahouts and Kavadis of 12 Dasara elephants, at a programme organised in the Palace premises this morning.

The kits contained a jerkin, a pair of shoes, uniform, belt, cap, umbrella and other articles.

Speaking to press persons on the occasion, Shankar said that the kits were distributed by the Forest Department and the family members of Mahouts and Kavadis were overjoyed.

Replying to a question on the Palace Board’s request to take back three Palace elephants, the Minister said the Forest Department was considering the request.

PCCF Jayaram, CCF Venkatesan, DCFs Siddramappa Chalkapure and Hanumanthappa, ZAK Member Secretary B.P. Ravi, Palace Board Deputy Director T.S. Subramanya and other officials were present.

Goof-up at wildlife expo irks photographers

Later, Forest Minister R. Shankar inaugurated a 3-day photo expo organised by Forest Department as part of Wildlife Week, at Suchitra Art Gallery, Kalamandira.

The expo features about 112 photographs, including two taken by Mysuru DC Abhiram G. Sankar (spotted owlet and purple sun bird). The expo will be open to public till Oct. 7 between 10.30 am and 4.30 pm.

While the theme of the expo was ‘Wildlife and Mysuru Region Bio-diversity,’ almost all photos displayed were on wildlife. Many photographers who shot rare photographs on Bio-diversity, complained to SOM that the Forest Department had rejected en masse many award-winning photographs on Biodiversity, for reasons best known to it.

Maintaining that most of the photographs on Biodiversity sent to the Forest Department for display at the expo were rejected, the photographers alleged that the captions of several photographs on display too were wrong and when the goof-up was brought to the notice of the Department, the forest officials simply removed the captions, without correcting them.