- Sunday, February 23, 2025
The tragedy took place when some raging bulls entered the spectators’ arena and gored the victims, one of whom was a minor boy, to death.
By: Shubham Ghosh
JALLIKATTU, India’s age-old but controversial bull-taming sport made the headlines on Wednesday (17) for the wrong reason as two spectators of the event, including a minor boy, were gored to death by raging bulls. The incident happened in Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu, India’s southernmost state where Jallikattu is a popular public sport staged during the festival of Pongal, a Hindu harvest festival.
Angry bulls ran into the crowd, fatally injuring the duo.
Jallikattu, in which angry bulls are released into a crowd and multiple participants try to tame it by grabbing its hump or hanging on to it, has been a subject of heated debates and prolonged legal battles for years now.
Read: India top court upholds Tamil Nadu law allowing bull-taming sport Jallikattu
While animal rights organisations have sought a ban on the sport saying it poses serious injury risk to both the players and the animals, its supporters have protested against any such move.
The Madras High Court in Tamil Nadu banned Jallikattu first in 2006. In 2014, India’s Supreme Court barred the sport on grounds of animal cruelty. But the government of Tamil Nadu temporarily lifted the ban in 2017 following protests and amended laws governing it. But the animal rights bodies then chipped in, challenging the legislation.
The Tamil Nadu government said before the top court that Jallikattu is not just an act of entertainment but an event of great ‘historic, cultural and religious’ value. In May last year, the top court upheld the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act of 2017 and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Conduct of Jallikattu) Rules of 2017, saying the traditional sport of Jallikattu has been going on in Tamil Nadu for the last century.
Similar events involving bullocks and buffaloes are also held in other Indian states such as Karnataka and Maharashtra.
