TIRUPATI: A new summer house for six elephants that provide services round the year to the Lord during all sacred rituals at Tirumala and Tirupati, has come up at Sri Venkateswara Gosamrakshana Sala. The elephants will be well taken care of at the house.
According to sources, the elephants will get body massage or brushing, medication and nutritious feed with ragi malt balls, which will be mixed with LIV-52, at least 50 to 100 ml to each elephant. Five to six elephants will be kept in Gosamrakshana Sala to use for rituals at Govindaraja Swamy temple, Kodandarama Swamy temple, Kapila Theertham temple, Padmavathi Ammavaru temple, Srinivasa Mangapuram temple and at all other TTD temples according to the schedule.
Every day the five elephants named Mahalakshmi, Avanija, Padmaja, Vaishnavi and Revathi participates in the rituals after walking at least 20 km to and fro from Sri Venkateswara Dairy Farm to the temple for duty which starts from early hours. They are also adorned with ‘Namam’ immediately after bath by their mahout. The old house of the elephants was in a dilapidated condition. The TTD administration constructed the new one with all facilities for six elephants.