Dasara elephants begin practice for Jamboo Savari; Elephants and mahouts under quarantine before celebrations

Dasara elephants have begun practicing for the Jamboo Savari at the Mysuru palace premises. The elephants are led by Abhimanyu who will carry the Golden Howdah. Elephants and mahouts are under quarantine before festive celebrations.

Mysuru: The Dasara elephants camping at the Mysuru palace have begun practicing for the Jamboo Savari at the palace premises.

The elephants that are led by Abhimanyu who will carry the Golden Howdah, were made familiar with the sound of cannon on Monday.

Amid high reportage of cases in the district since the past few days, the forest department has kept all the elephants that will be participating in the ‘Jumbo Savari’ and their mahouts in quarantine.

Close to 17 people from the department looking after the elephants have already undergone testing for COVID-19. All of them have tested negative for the virus.

The major five Dasara elephants were welcomed at the Palace on October 2.

A few days ago, district Minister ST Somashekar had said that everyone taking part in the Jamboo Savari procession will be tested for COVID-19 five days ahead of the event.

On Monday Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar had stated that keeping in mind the spike of COVID-19 cases in the state, the Dasara festivities will be simple in Karnataka, to avoid the mistake Kerala made by easing down COVID-19 restrictions to celebrate Onam.