Pongal: All You Need To Know About Jallikattu, The Controversial Bull-Taming Sport In Tamil Nadu
Pongal, the four-day harvest festival that also marks the beginning of the Tamil New Year is underway in the state and the Tamil-speaking diaspora across the world.
Pongal is celebrated across four days Bhogi Pongal, Surya Pongal, Mattu Pongal, and Kannam Pongal.
An integral part of the Pongal celebration in Tamil Nadu is Jallikattu, a highly controversial bull-taming sport.
What is?Jallikattu?
Jallikattu involves special-reared and trained bulls that are held in enclosures and released into crowded areas where people try to tame them.
The tamers who are able to hold onto the bull's hump till it crosses the finishing line are declared the winners. And they are celebrated as heroes and are awarded with gold, cash or even vehicles as rewards.?
Controversies over?Jallikattu
However, it is not as easy as it sounds and tamers or even spectators getting gored to death or suffering paralysing injuries by the raging bulls are not uncommon.
Despite this Jallikattu remains highly popular in Tamil Nadu and they have gone to any lengths to defend to uphold their tradition.
How Tamil Nadu fought to keep?Jallikattu alive
It should be noted that from 2006, Jallikattu was declared illegal several times, citing animal cruelty and danger to participants.
But successive state governments in Tamil Nadu have always circumvented the bans using legal loopholes.
In 2014 the Supreme Court had said that bulls could not be used as performing animals for Jallikattu events or bullock-cart races and banned their use for these purposes across the country.?
However, Jallikattu continued to take place in Tamil Nadu unabated till 2016, based on an environmental ministry order permitting the sport.
The SC again banned Jallikattu in 2017 under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, but the Tamil Nadu government passed the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2017, to allow Jallikattu.??
In 2018, the SC upheld the validity of the amendment introduced by Tamil Nadu, thus allowing Jallikattu.
The over-a-decade-long legal challenges have meant that Jallikattu has undergone several key changes now when it comes to preventing animal cruelty and fatalities during the sport.
Jallikattu 2024
This year, in Madurai district's Avaniyapuram, where one of the first and most famous Jallikattu takes place during Pongal, 2,400 bulls and 1,318 tamers have been registered.
3,677 bulls and 1,412 tamers for Palamedu Jallikattu; and 6,099 bulls and 1,784 tamers for the Alanganallur event.
Seven hundred bulls and 350 tamers are participating in the Jallikattu in Suriyur Village of Tiruchirappalli district.
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