Madurai
The best tamer, Ajay (22), from Alanganallur, who entered the arena only in the final round managed to hold the hump of eight bulls to win the award. He was awarded a car (Hyundai Eon) sponsored by Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.
Addressing the media, Ajay said that he was an ITI certificate holder and was looking for a job. Thanking Sakthi, his friend, Ajay said that without his support he could not have tamed so many bulls in a single round.
“I expected to tame only two or three in the final round, but eight was really a surprise to me,” said Ajay. Though he sustained an injury at the Palamedu encounter on Monday, a courageous Ajay managed to tame eight bulls in a single round.
Ajay was followed by Sangili Murugan, from Kuttimeikipatti village in Madurai district, who finished with a tally of seven bulls. Sarath Kumar, from Vallalapatti village, in Madurai district, and Vinoth Raj, from Madurai, followed him up closely with six bulls to their account. In the animals’ category, the bull reared by Santhosh of Milakaranai village near Madurai, was adjudged the best performer based on the number of rounds it made in the sporting arena and a few other parameters. Santhosh’s bull was awarded a Renault Kwid, which was sponsored by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.
Santhosh said that he and his family were into bull rearing for several generations and being a winner in the world famous Alanganallur jallikattu, was a matter of a pride and a memorable moment for his family in their life time.
An interesting feature at the venue was a photo exhibition of jallikattu, which was also inaugurated by Palaniswami and Panneerselvam. The jallikattu commenced after a safety pledge was administered to the participants.
Celebrity bulls
Bulls raised by Sri Lankan Minister Senthil Thondaman, State Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar, P Rajasekar, president, Jallikattu Peravai, and others attracted attention of all those present at the venue.
Rajasekar’s bull gored its tamer and in the incident Rajasekar’s brother suffered injuries. He was taken in an ambulance to a hospital. Madurai Collector, K Veera Raghava Rao had earlier announced that the jallikattu event would be held till 4 pm, but later it was extended by one more hour following repeated requests from the organising committee.
A team from the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWPI) headed by SK Mittal, Member, AWPI, monitored the event.
Safety aspects compromised
‘In the past three days, several safety aspects were compromised and it had led to a death in Palamedu jallikattu.
A glaring mistake in safety aspect is inability to maintain a proper collection point, where bulls reach after taking part in the event. Due to this, bulls were seen running in the streets of Avaniyapuram and Palamedu.
Last year too, a proper collection point was not set up. As a result, an engineering student who was a spectator was gored to death near the collection point.
There was also fleecing at Palamedu. Private players had set up galleries and people were allowed inside on payment of money. There was also no check in the number of persons who were admitted to the galleries.
One gored to death, 70 injured in Avarakadu
In the Jallikattu event that was organised at Ponnar Sankar Kovil ground in Avarakadu, 482 bulls from various districts and 285 tamers participated.
As more number of spectators had assembled in a particular spot, a bull that ran out of the vadivasal to the arena, attacked over 50 spectators, including Solai Pandian (21) of Pudukkottai district, Sararu (50) and Vaishya (17) and a policeman Ilayaraja.
Among them Solai Pandian suffered grievous injuries and died. Meanwhile, 19 bull tamers, who were injured were treated near the venue. Similarly, as many as 15 bull tamers were injured in the event held at Vanniyanviduthi in Arayappatti village panchayat near Alangudi in Pudukkottai district.
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