Till the Supreme Court stayed the Centre’s Pongal gift to Tamil Nadu, there were some anxious moments at the Animal Welfare Board of India, a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, which challenged the Ministry’s decision to allow Jallikattu. Cruelty to the animal is considered a talking point.
Jallikattu, one of the oldest exciting and dangerous sports is a bull taming sport performed in the villages of Tamil Nadu as a part of Pongal (harvest carnival) celebrations. Jallikattu or Manju Virattu is a bull taming game played in Tamil Nadu, India as a part of Pongal celebrations generally on the second and third days of the fair. Injuries and deaths are common in Jallikattu sports because as you know that a wrong hit of bull on the part of human body is deadly. In Jallikattu, all that the fighters have to do is to jump on the running bull, try to grip on to its bulge and move along with the animal without falling or getting injured. It needs quick reflex and a fleet foot to tame the recalcitrant bull, which will try to get away, shake off the fighter and, at times, stamp or gore the fallen participants. By the above description we can analyse the dangerous sport and banning it is a step in the right direction. There is no need to organise it during Pongal season.
C.K. Subramaniam
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
