Bhubaneswar:
All the eight elephants of the zoo here were decorated with customised applique apparel and fed with special food to create awareness among the visitors on protection of the animal on Saturday.
The visitors including school children were also allowed to feed banana, sugar cane and other fruits to the elephants of the Nandankanan Zoological Park which locally designed the day as 'Elephant Day'.
The Park Director Sudarshan Panda said they organised the 'Day' to create awareness on the protection of elephants by facilitating the visitors to mingle with the elephants.
"The people have shown interest in the protection of jumbos," he said.
"There are about 2,000 elephants in Odisha. I urge people to work for the safety and security of elephants and conservation of their habitat," Forest Secretary Raj Kumar Sharma said.