MYSURU: Tense moments prevailed on the Mysuru Palace premises on Friday evening after two Dasara bull elephants fought during their dinner.
The incident occurred when the mahouts and kavadis of the 43-year-old Dhananjay and 25-year-old Kanjan brought the elephants out of their shelter to the open ground to serve food, on the palace premises. The elephants were standing next to each other while they were served food near Kodi Someshwara Swamy Temple around 7.30 pm.
But Dhananjay gored Kanjan, leading to a fight. Kanjan, who could not withstand the attack of the older bull elephant, ran towards the gate next to Jayamarthanda Gate, the eastern gate of the palace. Even as Kanjan was running helter-skelter, the mahout managed to jump off the elephant and save himself. As the angry Dhananjay chased Kanjan, it crashed through the barricades and the gate of the palace, and entered the busy Bengaluru-Nilgiris Road for a moment, scaring people on the road.
However, the mahout Baskar who was on the back of Dhananjay managed to control the elephant, and prevented it from chasing Kanjan further, which had just passed by the busy road near the Doddakere Maidan. As the elephants entered the road, around 20 people walking on the road ran to safety. As Dhananjay stopped chasing Kanjan, the mahouts and kavadis managed to bring back the elephants back to the palace premises.
DCF (Wildlife) IB Prabhugowda told TNIE, “Because of the change in food, there will be a change in the behaviour of elephants. Dhananjay was not in masth (heat). The handlers managed to bring the tuskers under control and avoid an untoward incident."
The DCF said he has given clear instructions to elephant handlers not to place bull elephants next to each other and to serve them food in their shelters.
“We are monitoring the elephants throughout the day to find any changes in their behaviour. I have instructed veterinarians to keep a watch on any behavioural changes. Even if a tusker is in masth, handlers know how to handle it. It is the relationship, understanding and confidence between the tusker and its handler which makes the task easy,” he said.
District in-charge minister HC Mahadevappa said, “There are incidents where elephants have attacked their own caretakers. Measures have been taken up to prevent such incidents in future.”
Yogesh, who was walking on the busy Bengaluru-Nilgiri Road said, “I was walking on the road when the tuskers rushed out of the palace crashing through the gates. If the incident had occurred on a Saturday or Sunday, there would have been a major disaster as the stretch is filled with people on weekends as hundreds come to witness palace illumination,” he added.