TIRUPATI: Notwithstanding the police warnings, the 150-year-old bull race, Jallikattu, was held at Arepalli Rangampeta and other villages in Chandragiri constituency in Tirupati district, marking the Kanuma festival on Monday. Nearly 10 youths were injured in the event.
Scores of youngsters from the district and neighbouring Chittoor, Annamayya and Kadapa regions thronged the villages to witness ‘Pasuvula Panduga’, the Chittoor’s variant of Jallikattu. The participants vied with each other to snatch the trophies tied to the horns of the bulls by chasing them. Some youths were injured in the process.
Pasuvula Panduga is seen as the inferior variant of Tamil Nadu’s Jallikattu. It is in vogue in Rangampeta and other villages in Chittoor region for long years.
The bull race at Rangampeta has a violent history. More than 20 persons were injured during the event in 2020.
The event commenced here in the morning, with cattle farmers offering prayers to their village gods. They kicked the bulls to make them run amok amid the beating of drums, after these were released from about 20 cattle sheds in the village. Around 50-60 bulls were made to run through a narrow road in the village.
Animal rights activists were upset that the event was held despite the holding of awareness programmes and a Supreme Court order banning the dangerous game.
Bulls were forcibly fed with country liquor and they were also treated to doses of ganja-mixed jaggery lumps. Activists alleged that such feeding could result in the early death of these cattle due to internal injuries and a steady degradation of their health.
The Chandragiri police were tight-lipped about the holding of the Jallikattu events at Rangampeta and some other villages. Amid political pressure, police remained as mute spectators, also for fear of communal backlash. Police said they prevented the event in a few villages in the district by issuing strict warnings to the organisers.
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