By IANS
Chennai : Police in Tamil Nadu have registered a case Saturday against organisers of a traditional bullfight jallikattu, a day after the Supreme Court upheld the ban on the event.
The bullfight was organised Friday in Soorakudi village, in Sivaganga district about 650 km from state capital Chennai. The organisers had given a written undertaking not to conduct the fight but still went ahead with the event, police officers said.
Jallikattu is a traditional bullfight that takes place just after the harvest festival of Pongal. The bulls are in a high state of excitement and are tamed by men, in an event considered as part of the worship of mother Goddess Muthalamma.
The Supreme Curt Friday had upheld the ban on jallikattu, saying the bullfight in which the animals are tortured and made to run amok represented “severe cruelty”.
In a verdict in favour of animal rights groups who have protested this tradition, the apex court ruled, ” …let there not be any confrontation between the public and the bull”.
The tradition of taming of the bull is said to have been observed among tribes of the southern districts of Tamil Nadu since 300 AD and is said to find mention in the classic “Cilappatikaram”.
The tradition is now an annual routine in the villages across the southern districts of the state during the three-day Pongal festival and is billed by the state government as a tourist attraction, with the largest show in Allanganallur near Madurai.
It has also been showcased in over half a dozen popular films, including the Rajnikanth-starrer “Murrattu Kalai” and Kamal Haasan-starrer “Veerumandi”.
Peoples For Animal convenor Shiranee Pereira said of the Supreme Court verdict: “It is a judgement that has recognised the sanctity of life”. Every year several people die in the effort to tame bulls and scores of animals are injured, he added.
The police will find it difficult to enforce the apex court order, senior police officials said on condition of anonymity.
They maintain that thousands of villagers believe that not having a jallikattu would amount to displeasing Goddess Muthalamma and would bring ill fate and calamity to the villages.