Tamil Nadu: Jallikattu to be organised in Alanganallur today

Jallikattu, the bull taming sport, will be organised in Alanganallur village today. Earlier on Thursday, the Madurai District Collector visited the site to review the arrangements.

Meanwhile, as many as 49 people were injured during the event which was organised in Palamedu district.

Madurai’s famous Jallikattu arena Palamedu hosted the bull-taming sport after two years after a ban on the sport was lifted in January.

According to reports, a total of 850 bulls have been registered for the sport that held at Palamedu.

On February 5, at least 37 bull tamers were injured in Madurai’s Avanipuram during Jallikattu.

Of the injured, nine have been admitted to hospital for medical treatment, while the others who are not critical are being given first aid.

Jallikattu is usually held during the harvest festival of Pongal in mid-January, but could not be organised in the past three years in view of the ban on the sport.

Amid continuing protests over the ban on Jallikattu across the state, the Tamil Nadu Assembly had on January 23 unanimously passed an amendment bill, clearing the path for conducting Jallikattu without any hindrance.

With the government promulgating an ordinance and subsequently getting a Bill passed in the state assembly allowing Jallikattu, the event is being held in several parts of the state in the past few days.

The government’s intervention came after a week-long protest largely by youths, including students, in the Marina Beach in Chennai, and elsewhere in the state.