Dasara elephants on special diet to gain weight

Mysuru, Aug 18: With Dasara round the corner, Howdah elephant Abhimanyu and his team are on a tough training session and are given a special diet to ensure that they are physically fit for the Jamboo Savari.

The jumbos, which are camping on the premises of Mysuru Palace, are monitored regularly and their diet consists of nutritious food.

The elephants diet plan inlcludes three components. Firstly, they will be fed with green fodder including edible green leaves, banyan tree leaves, sugarcane and grass.

The second component is Kusure, a baked mixture of jaggery, coconut, straw and paddy.

The third component is a protein-rich diet that comprises a mix of urad grain, green gram, wheat, parboiled rice, butter and a mixture of beetroot, carrot, radish and cucumber with cooked onions.

Snacks

The jumbos are given snacks which include sugarcane, branch fodder, green grass, and beaten rice (poha). The elephants are fed an unlimited quantity of grass and branch fodder.

The Dasara jumbos are given a full body massage. Castor oil, neem oil, and cinnamon oil are applied to each elephant's body. Mahouts massage the elephant's head, back, and legs with the oil before giving them a cold water bath spanning more than an hour.

4 km walk every day

Every day, the elephants rehearse the 4-kilometre route through the city, to make them customise to the noise and crowds. And the howdah elephant is weighed down with increasingly heavy sandbags to get used to the weight he will carry on the final day of the procession.

The golden howdah that he has carried weighs a whopping 750kg.

The elephants gain good weight during their stay in Mysuru.