Cannon firing practice goes off smoothly

Lead elephant Abhimanyu and most jumbos remained calm

Barring a couple of elephants, most Dasara jumbos remained stable to the loud sound during the cannon firing practice held on the premises of Mysuru palace on Thursday to familiarise the jumbos to the booming sound produced from the artillery. Among the eight jumbos, Ashwathama, Lakshmi and Gopalaswamy showed some signs of distraction over the sound.

The lead elephant Abhimanyu, who is carrying the 750-kg golden howdah for the second time this year, stood firm when the cannons were fired in three rounds making a 21-gun salute.

This is the first practice session and two more cannon firing tests will be conducted on October 5 and 8. Horses that are going to be part of the Dasara procession were also present during the practice session.