Special food for pachyderms

Temple and mutt elephants at the Mettupalayam elephant camp joining the Pongal celebrations on Thursday. (Right) Tamil Nadu Forest Department officials taking part in the festivity at the Anamalai Tiger Reserve.

It was elephants’ day out for the 30 elephants undergoing rejuvenation programme at the elephant camp in Mettupalayam.

The elephants joined the Pongal celebrations, participated in prayers, savoured sugarcane and got to taste sweet Pongal as well.

According to officials from the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department, which is conducting the camp, the celebrations started with elephants getting a bath in the chill waters of River Bhavani in the morning.

After patiently waiting for the mahouts to complete the decorative face marks on their forehead, the elephants lined up in front of the place where the Pongal pots were kept ready for cooking.

Once the Pongal was cooked, a few elephants trumpeted, a few others rung the bell and others knelt down to pray, the sources said.

Then they got their share of sweet Pongal, sugarcane,

aval , jaggery and sweetmeat cooked for the occasion.

The sources said that pachyderms savoured well the special food as they were on restricted diet in the camp. In fact, some elephants were on diet as they were found obese.

The mahouts and attendants too had their share of the fun.

They participated in kabbadi, 100 m race, badminton, musical chair and other events the HR and CE Department had organised.

The sources added that the in addition to prizes, the Department also gave the mahouts and attendants dhoti and shirt.

At the elephant rejuvenation camp conducted by the Forest Department at Anamalai Tiger Reserve, 18 of the 22 elephants were taken to Top Slip for the Pongal festival. According sources, the elephants walked for five to six km to reach the festival site, participated in the festivities and then were taken back. The events included prayer at a local temple there, special food for the elephants that included sugarcane and food for the tourists as well.

Four elephants that were aged or injured or in masth were retained at the rejuvenation camp site.

Field Director, Anamalai Tiger Reserve, V.T. Kandasamy and District Forest Officer V. Asokan led the celebrations.

Street play staged

Residents of Vellikuppampalayam, near Sirumugai, staged a street play based on mythical character ‘Hiranyan’ on Thursday night. According to sources, as part of the decade-long tradition, the residents staged the play under the ‘Hiranya Nadaka Sabha’ banner.

The play organiser V. Govindaraj said that for close to 100 years, the residents had been staging the play on the first day of the Tamil month, Thai.