First batch of nine elephants to take part in Gajapayana on Aug. 21

Mysore/Mysuru: A total of 14 elephants will take part in this year’s Dasara festivities and Gajapayana, the march of Dasara elephants from Veeranahosahalli in Nagarahole Reserve Forest to Mysuru will be held on Aug. 21.

A poster containing the details of all 14 Dasara elephants was released by Minister for Forest, Ecology and Environment Eshwar Khandre during the International Conference on ‘Human Elephant Conflict Management – 2024,’ held as part of World Elephant Day celebrations at the University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK campus in Bengaluru, yesterday.

A total of 18 elephants were finalised by the forest officials for this year’s Dasara among which four elephants will be kept on reserve. While nine Dasara elephants namely — Abhimanyu (Male), Varalakshmi (Female), Dhananjaya (Male), Gopi (Male), Bheema (Male), Lakshmi (Female), Kanjan (Male), Rohit (Male) and Ekalavya (Male) will take part in Gajapayana and arrive in Mysuru the same day, five other elephants — Prashanth (Male), Mahendra (Male), Sugreeva (Male), Lakshmi (Female) and Hiranya (Female) will arrive in the second batch. The other four elephants — Harsha (Male), Aiyappa (Male), Parthasarathy (Male) and Maladevi (Female) which have been identified as reserve elephants will stay in their respective camps and will be brought to Mysuru in case of emergencies.

Speaking after releasing the poster, Minister Khandre said that as per the tradition and with co-ordination from the Mysuru District Administration, puja will be performed to the first batch of nine Dasara elephants before the commencement of Gajapayana at Veeranahosahalli during which the mahouts and kavadis will be felicitated, he added.

Continuing, Khandre said, “Today is World Elephant Day. Problems regarding man-elephant conflicts are persisting worldwide. In order to find solutions to it an International Conference on Human Elephant Conflict Management – 2024 was held which has been fruitful. Karnataka’s forest cover has not increased over the past years which has resulted in man-animal conflicts. To prevent such incidents, successful methods adopted by other States have been discussed at conference.”

Pointing out that an interaction with farmers was held as part of the conference in which he had take part, Minister Khandre said that ideas and suggestions from farmers in areas affected by elephants and also from environmentalists have been taken and the best suggestions will be                implemented.