Kenchamba, a 21-year-old female elephant, a new entrant in the Dasara jumbo team, is expecting her debut at the Jamboo Savari this year.
The elephant, a native of Cauvery Dhama in Periyapatna taluk, arrived here on Sunday in the second batch with five other elephants.
Kenchamba was one among 23 elephants caught from Hassan forests last year.
Veterans unavailable
The elephants entered the fray with two female veterans, Sarala and Vijaya, off on post-partum period. With no other suitable captive female elephant available for the job, the Forest Department zeroed in on Kenchamba, who will now have to pass the test to get the “green signal” for its role in the D-day.
A senior official told The Hindu : “We need to look at its behaviour and other characters during the routine rehearsals for the next 20-25 days before we take a final call.”
Varalakshmi and Sarala, which delivered calves one year and two year ago respectively, had not been considered for Dasara duty since the calves had not been weaned off from their mothers. Gajendra had been dropped from the team as a precautionary measure after it gored another Dasara jumbo, Srirama, and a kavadi to death in the jungle camp early this year. Balarama will now don the mantle as ‘Pattada Ane’ in this year’s procession.
