Arjuna and co bid adieu to city

A total of 14 elephants transported in lorries to their camps

The 402nd edition of jamboo savari that culminated on October 24, was complete on Friday with the returning of elephants to their camps.

In a farewell ceremony organised by the district administration, 12 of the total 14 jumbos were transported in lorries from the palace premises.

All the 14 pachyderms; howdah elephant Arjuna, Balarama, Srirama, Gajendra, Abhimanyu, Harsha, Vikrama, Vijaya, Cauvery, Kanthi, Chaitra, Gopalaswamy, Prashant and Gopi bid adieu to the city of palaces after successfully completing their Dasara odyssey.

Meanwhile, the happy news is Balarama though missed the chance of carrying 750-kg golden howdah in jamboo savari paving way for Arjuna, has shown signs of getting rid of his weakness (the reason that nipped his chances of carrying howdah for 13th time). According to the recent record of select jumbos weight, Balarama has gained 520 kg more against Arjuna’s 250 kg.

Deputy commissioner P S Vastrad also the special officer of Dasara, MCC commissioner M R Ravi and other officers offered puja to the pachyderms before seeing them off. Every mahout and kavadis were presented with Rs 5,000 as a token of appreciation.

The elephants that had camped on the palace premises for a total of 47 days had arrived in three batches. The first batch of six elephants led by Balarama had arrived in Gajapayana on September 7 from Nagapua Tribal Hamlet in Hunsur taluk. The second batch of equal number of elephants arrived on October 4.