The second phase of the rehearsal for the nine Dasara elephants camping in the city for the last 10 days, will commence from Thursday.
The first phase was akin to a warmup and entailed daily walks covering the procession route of 5 km and returning to their base camp at the palace thus logging 10 km in the morning and another 3 km in the evening. The elephants have been regularly covering 5 km in about 75 minutes.
This was to familiarize the elephants led by Abhimanyu to the Dasara procession route and expose them to the din and noise of the city.
For the second phase commencing from Thursday, the male elephants will be loaded with sand bags weighing about 300 kg to start with. After a few days the load will be gradually increased in phases till the elephants get used to carrying 750 kg – which is the weight of the golden howdah – plus a little additional weight including that of the mahout and the idol of goddess Chamundeshwari.
The second phase of the rehearsal will also commence with special prayers to the elephants and Abhimanyu and company will leave the palace premises and hit the procession route at 8.15 a.m. Deputy Conservator of Forests V. Karikalan, who is charge of the Dasara elephants, said that so far the elephants have not displayed an iota of distress or anxiety while walking on the crowded streets amidst the traffic. While elephants like Abhimanyu, Vikrama, Gopalswamy etc., have participated in Dasara and are familiar with the urban environment, it is a first for Mahendra and Bhima.
‘’Neither Mahendra nor Bhima have displayed signs of stress and easily cover the 10-km stretch not bothered by the din produced by the passing vehicles,” said Mr. Karikalan.
Mr. Karikalan said the elephants have been put on special diet to enable them to gain additional strength and weight so that they are fit for the Vijayadashmi procession slated for October 5.
Medical examinations have indicated that they are all in normal health and hence the second phase of the rehearsal, will commence. “The elephants will get accustomed to the graduated increase in weight over the next few days. But the elephants bear the weight only for the first 5 km of the walk being the actual procession route. The sand bags are removed during their return walk,” said Mr. Karikalan.
A team of veterinarians along with senior Forest Department officials are camping at the palace premises which is the base camp for the Dasara elephants and are regularly monitoring their health. The remaining portion of the day after the rehearsal is spent relaxing in the pond splashing water in the palace premises.
