MADURAI: With Jallikattu season all set to begin in Madurai and other parts of the State, several tamers have voiced their opposition against the move to fix rubber covers on the horns of the bulls.
Though not a necessity, it has been recommended as a safety measure, is the view of many tamers, who said that if the move is introduced, then we would be like warriors fighting without weapons in a battlefield.
“Such a move will not allow the tamers to exemplify the qualities of bravery,” Mudakathan Mani, president of Tamil Nadu Jallikattu Payirchi Maiyam said on Saturday urging all tamers to protest the move and not to implement any such new regulation.
“It is a needless move,” said P Rajaboopathy, bull owner and tamer from Madakulam, Madurai.
“Bull owners don’t know whether such rubber horn covers are available or the organisers will provide them,” he said.
“Fixing rubber cover on the horn can be a safety net for participating bulls, but not for tamers. Any charging bull with such rubber cover on its horns can be even more dangerous if it rams into a tamer. The safety cover may eventually get fixed inside the tamer’s body,” Rajaboopathy told DT Next.
During 2009-14, P Rajasekar, president, Tamil Nadu Jallikattu Peravai, introduced a health insurance programme for bull tamers, who get injured. But it is not in effect now.
Hence, the State government should come up with the initiative to protect the tamers under the insurance scheme.