New Delhi: Two people were gored to death Sunday in a bull-taming festival in southern India, a report said, a day after a ban on the controversial sport was overturned.
Several towns and villages in the southern state of Tamil Nadu celebrated the popular Jallikattu festival on Sunday after weeklong protests prompted authorities to approve an executive order lifting a Supreme Court ban on it.
But rampaging bulls sprinting through the village of Rapoosal in Pudukottai district fatally gored the two victims and injured 28 others, the Press Trust of India (PTI) cited local police as saying.
The sport involves young men latching on to the hump of bulls. One who manages to stay put even after the animal makes three jumps is declared a winner.
At times, the participants are thrown off the back of bulls or get gored by the animal. It was not clear how the deaths occurred in Pudukottai.
The Supreme Court last year outlawed Jallikattu after a plea by animal rights groups, which have long accused those taking part in the event — held annually across Tamil Nadu — of cruelty to the animals.
The state’s residents say Jallikattu is a crucial part of their culture and identity.
Growing tensions over the past week in the state capital Chennai and other cities led Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday to issue an executive order that this year’s event go ahead.
But thousands have continued to protest and refused to celebrate the festival, saying they want a permanent lifting of the court ban and not just a temporary order.
Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam assured Tamils that the executive order would be made into a law during the state’s next session of the House starting Monday, according to PTI.
‘Nobody can stop’
Panneerselvam was scheduled to launch the Jallikattu festival in the town of Alanganallur in Madurai district, where the sport is most popular. But he was forced to cancel his appearance due to strong protests.
Speaking in Madurai on his way to Chennai, the chief minister said: “Jallikattu is being held at several places in the state. At Alanganallur it will be held when the people want it.
“Jallikattu cannot be stopped by anybody,” Panneerselvam added.
In Jallikattu, young men struggle to grab the bulls by their sharpened horns or jump on their backs as the beasts, festooned with marigolds, charge down the road.
Unlike in Spanish bullfighting, young men compete to subdue them bare-handed.
But critics say organisers lace the bulls’ feed with liquor to make them less steady on their feet and throw chilli powder in their faces to send them into a sudden frenzy as they are released from a holding pen.
Organisers of the centuries-old festival insist the beasts suffer no harm and call the event an established part of Tamil culture.
At the Marina beach, epicentre of the stir for the last six days, protesters continued to stay put demanding a permanent solution for holding the sport besides a ban on animal rights group Peta.
Groups of agitators continued their protests at several locations in the state, raising the same demand.
