Mysuru: Gajapayana, the first event of the Dasara festivities, will begin with elephants starting from Nagapura Haadi in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve around 11 am on Sunday.
The elephants, which are brought into the city to acclimatise them to the procession route, will start their journey from the tribal settlement after a traditional pooja and celebrations.
While six elephants will arrive in the first batch, 61-year-old Gajendra will reach the premises of Aranyabhavan straight from Biligiriranga Tiger Reserve on Sunday.
The other elephants, including 56-year-old Arjuna from Balle Elephant Camp, 58-year-old Balarama and 50-year-old Abhimanyu from Thithi Mathi camp in Nagarahole and Vijaya from Dubare camp in Madikeri division, have been brought to a temporary camp at Nagapura, a tribal hamlet in Nagarahole.
Ahead of Gajapayana, Mysuru district incharge minister Dr H.C. Mahadevappa launched a Dasara website and Dasara logo on Saturday evening. He said, “The district administration had invited entries for a contest to design logos.
Eighty-three contestants had sent 160 logos. Of them, 10 logos were shortlisted. Finally the logo designed by Lokesh Raavudi from Aadi Creations has been finalised.”
He said that the Dasara website, www.mysoredasara.gov.in, designed by Dotangle, will have all the events related to Dasara and the details will be updated regularly.
It will have details related to connectivity, hotels and other emergency services to help tourists. As water conservation is the theme for this year’s Dasara, the logo and website have been designed predominantly with blue colour to match the theme. The website, which already has tips on conserving water, also has links to Youtube videos related to conservation of water, he said.
A helicopter joy ride and an exhibition of stone and wooden sculptures, “Shilpa kale and hastha shilpa kale”, will be some of the special features for this year’s Dasara.
