Tamil Nadu's Jallikattu season draws to a close but not before acts of daredevilry by humans and animals.
Seven people, including spectators and a bull owner, died in jallikattu and manjuvirattu events held across Tamil Nadu on Kaanum Pongal day. Two bulls also died in separate incidents. Over 150 people were injured in the events, which saw hundreds of bulls and tamers participate.
About 42 people, including 14 tamers and 16 spectators, were injured in the second major event of the Pongal 2024 Jallikattu season at Palamedu in Madurai on Tuesday, January 16, 2024.
The popular bull- taming competition held on Pongal day in Madurai district left about 59 people, including tamers, bull owners and spectators injured.
Several youths made an unsuccessful bid to tame bulls released on the roads by miscreants.
They just wanted their angst noticed, and as a symbol of recognition, Jallikattu, restored without the annual ritual of court cases and adjournments, explains N Sathya Moorthy.
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Fifteen villagers in Alanganallur tonsured their heads as a mark of protest. Most shops in these areas remained closed and black flags were hoisted atop houses.
Two days after the Supreme Court banned Jallikattu (bull fight), the residents of Alanganallur and Palamedu villages in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu observed a one-day fast on Sunday morning, pleading the apex court to vacate the ban. Over 500 villagers, including 100 women and children, began the fast near the old police atation at Alanganallur. The shopkeepers downed their shutters, for the second day, as a mark of protest against the ban.
Protesters demanded a permanent solution for holding the sport and raised slogans that an ordinance was only a temporary measure.
There were incidents of stone-pelting and burning of vehicles and sundry items at various places in protest against the police action.
Words and actions like those of R N Ravi and a vocal section of the state BJP have only added to Tamil fears and suspicions, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
About 40 bull tamers were injured, they said.
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Police said youths were detained at Mudakathan, Alanganallur, Palamedu and Vilangudi in Madurai district, at Nallampatti in Dindigul district and Pottuchavadi in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu for trying to hold the sport defying the apex court ban.
The die-hard supporters of the sport along with major political parties in the state have been demanding an ordinance for conducting Jallikattu.
Despite severe restrictions imposed on the number of bulls, bull-tamers and spectators thanks to the pandemic, Jallikattu organisers are hopeful of the show going on this Pongal.
The final day of Jallikattu lived up to all the hype surrounding the tremendously popular sport. A Ganesh Nadar shares his ringside view with us
Rediff.com's Ganesh Nadar shares his experience after witnessing Tamil Nadu's annual bull-taming festival, which is celebrated as part of the harvest festival of Pongal.
Tamil Nadu's over 400 year-old bull-taming festival, popularly known as Jallukattu, has once again been a bloody affair.
At least 129 people were injured in the two events held on Wednesday in Palamedu in Madurai District and Periyasuriyur near Tiruchirappalli.
Jallikattu is a four century old tradition and the Supreme Court can go take a walk. This is the mood in Alanganallur, A Ganesh Nadar says.
Different petitions for and against Jallikattu were posted for hearing in the first week of February.
As the feisty bulls, one after the other started racing towards the lengthy sporting arena from the entrance, known as 'vadivasal,' young men waiting with bated breath strained every nerve to latch on to the hump of the animals.
Nineteen-year old Kalimuthu, who was seated in a front row of the viewers' gallery, suffered fatal stomach injury when the bull running in the playing arena suddenly strayed and attacked him.
The harvest festival of Pongal was celebrated across Tamil Nadu on Friday, though the festivity was low key in southern districts, including Madurai, following the Supreme Court ban on the bull taming sport of Jallikattu.
Decks were cleared on Friday night for an ordinance on Jallikattu after Tamil Nadu and the Centre worked feverishly even as the state stood on the edge and protesters on Marina beach and elsewhere refused to relent until the sport is held.
DMK working president M K Stalin led a protest in Chennai and sought promulgation of an ordinance to allow holding the sport.
Supporters of the bull taming sport Jalikattu on Tuesday staged protests in Tamil Nadu after SC stayed the Centre's notification lifting the ban on it.
With the Supreme Court refusing to vacate its order on lifting of a ban on the sport by the Centre.
In Tamil Nadu, Divya Nair encounters jallikattu, a ban on colas and a water shortage.
The state government held talks with the protesting youth to sort out the matter.
The CM thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his support to Jallikattu, an emotive issue which triggered mass protests across the state.
Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam announced on Friday morning that the state government will amend a central act on Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to allow the conduct of Jallikattu in the state with the Centre's backing, and urged protestors across the state to withdraw their agitation following the likelihood of the bull-taming sport to be held in a "day or two."
With the Supreme Court reinforcing its stay on jallikattu, the state BJP hopes it can persuade its party leadership to bring in an ordinance. But this is a path filled with risk, reports R Ramasubramanian.
'What is surprising is the scale and spontaneity of the mobilisation and the social profile of the mobilisation.' 'Not just the youth, but women, children and families are part of this now.' 'This is completely unprecedented.'
It's election season in Tamil Nadu and all political parties are tying themselves in knots over the banned jallikattu but none more than the BJP, says R Ramasubramanian.
DMK Working President MK Stalin is worried about divisions in the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam after the death of Jayalalithaa and keen that it should not affect the functioning of the administration.
The jallikattu issue has revived pan-Tamil political sentiments especially among youths, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
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