Coimbatore: The Forest Department celebrates ‘Pongal Elephant’ in Kozhikamuthi and Elephant Vararaliyar Camp in Animalai Tiger reserves (ATR) on Saturday.
All 24 captive elephants in Kozhikamuthi Camp and the three in Varakaliyar Camp were obtained for that day by their garlanding.
Tribal from the closest settlement cooked with pongal in seven pots, while Abhinaya and Sanjay’s prisoners elephants offer prayers before Vinayaka Idol.
Then, special puja is done.
The elephants were then fed pongal, sugar cane, jaggery, coconut and fruits.
Friendly attraction was held between two teams, named Kaleem and Ramu, on that occasion.
The event sees their 16 Mahout and Assistant participation (Kavadi).
The Kaleem team won the contest.
The celebration was held in front of the Atr S Ramasubramanian Field Director, Deputy Director of the Field M g, Ganesan and Kumar Kumar District Forest Officer.
Officials have allowed several hundred tourists to participate in the celebration of ‘Elephant Pongal’.
“They were filtered for temperatures at the top slip.
After verifying their vaccination certificate, they were taken to Kozhikamuthi Elephant Camp in the Ministry of Forestry’s vehicle,” said an official source to Ti.among 27 Elephant Prisoners who celebrated Pongal in the two camps that day was 18 elephants and nine elephants.