MYSURU: Balarama, one of the Dasara elephants which was being taken for a bath by the mahout’s son to a pond in the Mysuru Palace, panicked when it went near the pond and fled from the spot before standing still near the royal family’s residence on the palace premises on Saturday morning.
Balarama’s mahout Thimma, Kavadi Gopala and veterinarian Dr. Nagaraj who ran behind Balarama, managed to calm down the jumbo.
DCF Ganesh Bhat, who came to know about the incident instructed the mahouts and kavadis to handle their elephants personally and not allow their children to handle them besides instructing them to keep their elephants chained.
Weight checked
The first batch of six Dasara elephants which arrived at Mysuru Palace on Friday underwent weight checking on Saturday morning in Mysuru.
The six Dasara elephants — Balarama, Arjuna, Abhimanyu, Kaveri, Vijaya and Gajendra — underwent weight checking at Narasimha and Sons Weigh Bridge located on Dhanvantri Road in Mysuru.
Balarama weighed 4,920 kg, Arjuna weighed 5,615 kg, Abhimanyu 4,853 kg, Kaveri 3,005 kg, Vijaya 2,635 kg and Gajendra weighed 4,620 kg.
Veterinarian Dr. D N Nagaraj supervised the weighing procedures.