``This amounts to cruelty on animals. Why should an elephant be forced to carry the huge weight for more than 4 km during Vijayadashami procession apart from having to practise carrying it weeks before the celebrations?'' Geetha Manja, PFA convenor asked.

Geetha said the matter had been discussed with the national PFA chairperson Maneka Gandhi on Sunday. ``We will not impose our will on the organisers or the people but try to convince them not to subject the elephants to such ardous tasks.''

The howdah is used to carry the idol of goddess Chamundeshwari during the festival. Suggestions to use a chariot to carry the howdah have been doing the rounds since an elephant, Arjuna, damaged it when he threw a tantrum four years ago. The death of another elephant, Drona, who had carried the howdah for 16 years, hasbolstered the idea.

Meanwhile, speculation is rife that the scion of the Mysore royal family, Srikantadutta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, will not hand over the golden howdah to the State Government. Wadiyar had earlier gone on record saying he would hand it over as he did not want to be seen obstructing the celebrations. But with the President giving his assent to the take-over of the palace, Wadiyar is unlikely to stick to his words. The movables in the palace including the golden throne are listed as private collections of Wadiyar, with others are under joint management of the government and Wadiyar.

Culture Minister and Dussehra celebrations committee chairperson Leeladevi R Prasad is frantic to meet Wadiyar and have the matter sorted out as soon as possible at a ``time and place of his convenience''. But Wadiyar is out of town fighting legal battles to save his palaces.

Consequently, the minister left a letter with Dussehra special officer Bore Gowda to be handed over personally to Wadiyar when hereturns.

In the letter, the minister has sought total co-operation of the scion to organise the `Nada Habba' (a people's festival) without any hiccups.

However, she told The Indian Express

that she would resort to legal measures if necessary to secure the golden howdah. She said she has sought to prevail upon Wadiyar that the Government was not out to `insult' anybody.