Jallikattu: Bull tamers want govt to provide jobs

S. Prabhakaran from Podhambu in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu, who was the winner of the best bull tamer award at the Palamedu Jallikattu held on Saturday, urged Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to provide government jobs to the bull tamers.

The 21-year-old won the best bull tamer award and a two-wheeler sponsored by the DMK Youth wing president and son of Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, Udayanidhi Stalin. Prabhakaran tamed 21 bulls after he took the field at round 4 and endured till round 7.

 

M. Karthik Raja who had tamed 11 bulls won the second place and was awarded with an LED TV.

 

Sivaganga Puliyur Sooravali won the best bull award and a car sponsored by the Chief Minister.

 

The first prize winner Prabhakaran had earlier won the Palamedu Jallikattu in 2020 and became runner up in 2021. The bull tamer said that he was working as a driver and most of the bull tamers are doing something or other odd jobs and that they were not into full-time bull taming.

 

The Palamedu Jallikattu showered gold coins and other home appliances for the winners of each round and throughout the game. Several sponsors lined up to provide awards to the winners.

 

Most of the awards given away were sponsored by DMK ministers including S. Moorthy and Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi other than the car for the best bull tamer sponsored by Chief Minister Stalin and a two-wheeler for the best bull tamer by the chief of the DMK youth wing, Udayanidhi Stalin.

 

It may be noted that 704 bulls and 300 tamers took part in the Palamedu Jallikattu on Saturday.

 

Two bull tamers, Ramachandran from Moodavarpatti and Tamil Arasan from Chinnapatti were in the second and third positions by taming eight and five bulls respectively. However, they were disqualified after the authorities found that they had impersonated for someone else.

 

Ramachandran wore the T-Shirt bearing the name Chakravarthi while Tamil Arasan wore the T-Shirt registered in the name of Karthi.

 

At least 36 persons including 2 police officials were injured during the bullfight and admitted to various hospitals for treatment.