The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : “Yaanai Pongal” celebrated at Top Slip

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Thursday, Jan 17, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

“Yaanai Pongal” celebrated at Top Slip

Staff Reporter

It was organised for the second consecutive year
About 16 camp elephants of the Forest Department were given special food

Pollachi: The festive mood at Top Slip in Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary near Pollachi about 68 km from Coimbatore was a totally different one on Wednesday, thanks to the initiative of the Forest Department which organised “Yaanai Pongal” i.e., a Pongal for elephants.

According to S. Thangaraj Panneerselvam, Range Officer, Top Slip “Yaanai Pongal” was being organised for the second consecutive year and 16 of the 23 camp elephants including three calves of the Forest Department were given special food.

Thanks giving

While the rest of the population celebrated “Mattu Pongal”, the Department had hit upon this idea of celebrating Yaanai Pongal to give importance to the pachyderms as a thanks giving for all the services rendered by these pachyderms all through the year, the forest officials pointed out.

Special food

The special food menu for these jumbos included pongal, rice, sugarcane, jaggery and banana while the visitors were provided with pongal and sundal.

Rare opportunity

Children had a great time spending memorable moments with the calves and tamed camp elephants as most of them got a rarest opportunity to play around so closer to the pachyderms.

Seven elephants could not take part in the celebrations because two of them “kumkis” are on deployment at Coimbatore on duty for handling the problems arising out of the straying of wild elephants into human habitations.

1,500 visitors

While more than 1,500 visitors thronged the tourist spot in a reserve forest in over 250 vehicles, the chief guests for the occasion were R. Rajagopal, Secretary to Government for Environment and Forests and K.R. Varadarajan - Wildlife Warden of the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary.

The mahouts and their family members were given dresses to celebrate Yaanai pongal.

Large number of tourists had gathered on either side as the jumbos began marching from the elephant camp to a place near the reception where the Yaanai pongal was celebrated.

Public response

Officials said that public response and participation for this Yaanai Pongal was definitely on the rise, thus encouraging the department to do better in the years to come.

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