<p>Now, the event is monitored by the local village organising committee<br /><br /></p>.<p>It is nature versus culture at its starkest. Bull-tamer Selvam in his mid-20s’, sporting a white T-shirt embossed with a logo of his village deity Angala Parameshwari jumped up in joy, thumping his fist into the cool air at Avaniyapuram, on the outskirts of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. As he warms up for this year’s “Jallikattu”, part of the annual “Pongal (harvest)” festivities, he is already excited by the prospect of thousands of people who adore this ostensibly barbaric sport, cheering him. However, over the last three years, the profile of this awesomely popular valour sport has undergone a sea change, as “Jallikattu” (taming the bull) games are monitored by the eagle eyes of the local village organising panel, including officials overseeing the compliance of the Supreme Court’s latest guidelines, and the panning video cameras of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), a new stakeholder in this game.<br /><br />The Apex Court’s new norms have visibly had a salutary effect in the last couple of years. They have seemingly minimised pain ensuing to the bulls, maximised safety to several lakh people, including foreign tourists, who throng to see this passion sport with deep religious and Tamil cultural overtones. <br /><br />More regulations will be in place this year in celebrating this culture sport, with the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court giving an interim nod for this 'Pongal' season, and directing strict compliance with earlier Supreme Court orders and Tamil Nadu's own “Jallikattu Regulation Act, 2009”, to ensure the game is safe and enjoyable for all.<br /><br />The latest petition is in the backdrop of the Union Environment Ministry's last July notification barring use of bulls as “performing animals”. This has come as manna from heaven for animal lovers to renew their demand for a total ban on “Jallikattu” as it <br />inflicts pain on animals. But across the board, nobody, including foreign tourists, favours an outright ban on “Jallikattu”. “I am really happy the Supreme Court didn’t ban it. It is part of the tradition here and it is important for the people of India to keep its traditions alive,” said a British tourist, on her way to the most famous and biggest “Jallikattu” show at Alanganallur slated for January 15. <br /><br />“It (Jallikattu) is part of the Tamil identity. If they ban the “Jallikattu”, it is like killing the soul of the people. It is not wise to do that,” argued a Belgian tourist. There are, including Alanganallur, a dozen villages in and around Madurai where “Jallikattu” is an ecstatic rage. Cut into Avaniyapuram, five km from there,where traditionally the first bullfight opens, one runs into amazing characters who vow the game will never die. <br />“Even today, I can jump into the ring,” boasts 53-year-old Machu Kalai, a farmer from nearby Alagar Kovil, flexing his muscles. Reeling off a long lineage of bullfighters in his family over generations, known as “Azhagappan Vamsam”, a household known for its prodigious upbringing of bulls, Machu felt sad that he had to gradually give up the sport <br />after “my first daughter Devi was born in the family”. After four more children, including two girls, his wife sternly warned him, “enough of Jallikattu; You want us to get orphaned?”<br /><br />The sportsmen may change, but the sport, so much bound with ancient Tamil tradition and culture, will go on, swears Machu, baring with pride the scars of the bull-inflicted wound he suffered over the left eyebrow more than 25 years ago when people used to organise “Jallikattu” even on August 15, Independence Day.<br /><br />Now, only the bull-tamers who are given token numbers by the administration and shorts and <br /><br />T-shirts to identify them can enter the “Vaadi-Vaasal” (play arena) where the bulls challenge youth. The bull-tamers, as they take the plunge, do a mini-marathon after gripping the animal’s hump without their feet getting crushed by the bulls’ hoofs or their body gored by its horns. When none of them succeeds, the bull owner is declared the winner. <br /><br />“The excitement may be less now, but the safety for the viewers has grown 10-fold with this double barricading of the entire play area,” points out Ravichandran, adding, it restricts the injuries largely to the players now. <br /><br />“The Jallikattu is integrally related to propitiating our village guardian deities, from Muthalamman, Muniyandi, Iyyanar, Karupanna Samy and Kali Amman; without it “Pongal” celebrations are vacuous,” asserts Alanganallur Panchayat former Chairman D Raghupathy.<br /> <br />“The bull is also Shiva’s mount and so crucial for our agriculture; hence “Jallikattu” is only an extension of the village temple festival weaved around an ancient culture and religion of the Tamils,” he told Deccan Herald. Prior to every bull-run, veterinarians examine their physical fitness and age. They check whether bull-owners have sprayed chilly powder, snuff or lime juice on bulls’ noses that irritates and turns them ferocious in the game, said an Animal Husbandry Department official at Madurai.<br /><br />Even sharp horns are blunted, while excess oil on the bulls’ humps are removed “by our staff” to comply with the Court’s diktat to minimise the cruelty to them, he said. At the other end, the bull-taming youths take a breathalyzer test to weed out alcoholics. There are no prizes for group catchers, even as lads who try to hold the bull by its tail are promptly removed from the arena.<br /><br />“The cruelty aspect comes in mainly due to some avaricious bull owners who intoxicate the animals with arrack, mixed with chili powder to make it ferocious,” said Dr S M Sivakumar, a senior doctor of Madurai. It pays them to take home an untamed bull, as each can fetch a fancy price at the village shandies of above Rs.30,000.<br /><br /> To avert shoddy barricading at any venue, the PWD engineers will also need to certify the “stability and safety” of the spectator galleries on either side. The outlet for the bulls should also be way off from the stands to ward them away from bizarrely charging back from behind! For the bull-tamers, it is not so much the prize money, but the honour that a victory brings and an upswing in their self-esteem, at times even a bride, says Raghupathy. After the three hugely popular “Jallikattus” in Madurai--at Avaniyapuram, Alanganallur and Palamedu-- the sport moves to neighbouring Southern districts like Tiruchirappalli, Pudukottai and Sivaganga.</p>
<p>Now, the event is monitored by the local village organising committee<br /><br /></p>.<p>It is nature versus culture at its starkest. Bull-tamer Selvam in his mid-20s’, sporting a white T-shirt embossed with a logo of his village deity Angala Parameshwari jumped up in joy, thumping his fist into the cool air at Avaniyapuram, on the outskirts of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. As he warms up for this year’s “Jallikattu”, part of the annual “Pongal (harvest)” festivities, he is already excited by the prospect of thousands of people who adore this ostensibly barbaric sport, cheering him. However, over the last three years, the profile of this awesomely popular valour sport has undergone a sea change, as “Jallikattu” (taming the bull) games are monitored by the eagle eyes of the local village organising panel, including officials overseeing the compliance of the Supreme Court’s latest guidelines, and the panning video cameras of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), a new stakeholder in this game.<br /><br />The Apex Court’s new norms have visibly had a salutary effect in the last couple of years. They have seemingly minimised pain ensuing to the bulls, maximised safety to several lakh people, including foreign tourists, who throng to see this passion sport with deep religious and Tamil cultural overtones. <br /><br />More regulations will be in place this year in celebrating this culture sport, with the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court giving an interim nod for this 'Pongal' season, and directing strict compliance with earlier Supreme Court orders and Tamil Nadu's own “Jallikattu Regulation Act, 2009”, to ensure the game is safe and enjoyable for all.<br /><br />The latest petition is in the backdrop of the Union Environment Ministry's last July notification barring use of bulls as “performing animals”. This has come as manna from heaven for animal lovers to renew their demand for a total ban on “Jallikattu” as it <br />inflicts pain on animals. But across the board, nobody, including foreign tourists, favours an outright ban on “Jallikattu”. “I am really happy the Supreme Court didn’t ban it. It is part of the tradition here and it is important for the people of India to keep its traditions alive,” said a British tourist, on her way to the most famous and biggest “Jallikattu” show at Alanganallur slated for January 15. <br /><br />“It (Jallikattu) is part of the Tamil identity. If they ban the “Jallikattu”, it is like killing the soul of the people. It is not wise to do that,” argued a Belgian tourist. There are, including Alanganallur, a dozen villages in and around Madurai where “Jallikattu” is an ecstatic rage. Cut into Avaniyapuram, five km from there,where traditionally the first bullfight opens, one runs into amazing characters who vow the game will never die. <br />“Even today, I can jump into the ring,” boasts 53-year-old Machu Kalai, a farmer from nearby Alagar Kovil, flexing his muscles. Reeling off a long lineage of bullfighters in his family over generations, known as “Azhagappan Vamsam”, a household known for its prodigious upbringing of bulls, Machu felt sad that he had to gradually give up the sport <br />after “my first daughter Devi was born in the family”. After four more children, including two girls, his wife sternly warned him, “enough of Jallikattu; You want us to get orphaned?”<br /><br />The sportsmen may change, but the sport, so much bound with ancient Tamil tradition and culture, will go on, swears Machu, baring with pride the scars of the bull-inflicted wound he suffered over the left eyebrow more than 25 years ago when people used to organise “Jallikattu” even on August 15, Independence Day.<br /><br />Now, only the bull-tamers who are given token numbers by the administration and shorts and <br /><br />T-shirts to identify them can enter the “Vaadi-Vaasal” (play arena) where the bulls challenge youth. The bull-tamers, as they take the plunge, do a mini-marathon after gripping the animal’s hump without their feet getting crushed by the bulls’ hoofs or their body gored by its horns. When none of them succeeds, the bull owner is declared the winner. <br /><br />“The excitement may be less now, but the safety for the viewers has grown 10-fold with this double barricading of the entire play area,” points out Ravichandran, adding, it restricts the injuries largely to the players now. <br /><br />“The Jallikattu is integrally related to propitiating our village guardian deities, from Muthalamman, Muniyandi, Iyyanar, Karupanna Samy and Kali Amman; without it “Pongal” celebrations are vacuous,” asserts Alanganallur Panchayat former Chairman D Raghupathy.<br /> <br />“The bull is also Shiva’s mount and so crucial for our agriculture; hence “Jallikattu” is only an extension of the village temple festival weaved around an ancient culture and religion of the Tamils,” he told Deccan Herald. Prior to every bull-run, veterinarians examine their physical fitness and age. They check whether bull-owners have sprayed chilly powder, snuff or lime juice on bulls’ noses that irritates and turns them ferocious in the game, said an Animal Husbandry Department official at Madurai.<br /><br />Even sharp horns are blunted, while excess oil on the bulls’ humps are removed “by our staff” to comply with the Court’s diktat to minimise the cruelty to them, he said. At the other end, the bull-taming youths take a breathalyzer test to weed out alcoholics. There are no prizes for group catchers, even as lads who try to hold the bull by its tail are promptly removed from the arena.<br /><br />“The cruelty aspect comes in mainly due to some avaricious bull owners who intoxicate the animals with arrack, mixed with chili powder to make it ferocious,” said Dr S M Sivakumar, a senior doctor of Madurai. It pays them to take home an untamed bull, as each can fetch a fancy price at the village shandies of above Rs.30,000.<br /><br /> To avert shoddy barricading at any venue, the PWD engineers will also need to certify the “stability and safety” of the spectator galleries on either side. The outlet for the bulls should also be way off from the stands to ward them away from bizarrely charging back from behind! For the bull-tamers, it is not so much the prize money, but the honour that a victory brings and an upswing in their self-esteem, at times even a bride, says Raghupathy. After the three hugely popular “Jallikattus” in Madurai--at Avaniyapuram, Alanganallur and Palamedu-- the sport moves to neighbouring Southern districts like Tiruchirappalli, Pudukottai and Sivaganga.</p>
