The wall adjacent to the vaadivasal (the bull’s entry point) in the jallikkattu arena at
Alanganallur in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu carries a painting of a person holding on to the
hump of a bull, accompanied by the caption ‘The venue of Alanganallur’s world famous
jallikkattu.’
Of all the places in Madurai, Tiruchi, and a few other districts of Tamil Nadu where jallikkattu
takes place, Alanganallur is synonymous with the bull-taming sport, the ban on which
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triggered unprecedented protests across Tamil Nadu in 2017. The ban was lifted through a
special legislation of the State government.
What happened?
Alanganallur played a crucial role in the protest: the forceful eviction by the police of a group
of protesters, who were on a sit-in in the arena, in the early hours of January 17, 2017, acted as
a flashpoint, leading the people to come out in large numbers across the State, particularly
on the Marina Beach in Chennai.
Though Alanganallur is the only place to have a dedicated gallery for foreign tourists, there
appears to be a palpable discouragement to host them in the last couple of years with a
suspicion among a section of the villagers that animal rights activists from organisations like
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals visit under the garb of foreign tourists and later
release videos on ‘cruelty to the bulls.’
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The event’s significance was further endorsed by the fact that Edappadi K. Palaniswami
flagged it off last year, the first time a Chief Minister inaugurated a jallikkattu. The safety
measures for the bulls and tamers were significantly improved, resulting in fewer injuries.
However this year, the death of spectators made it clear that it needs to be regulated better.
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Mr. Venkatesan points out that the construction of the Mullaperiyar Dam in the late 19th
century by British engineer Col. John Pennycuick, however, ensured irrigation in several
pockets of the rain-fed Madurai region, including Alanganallur and Palamedu, another
popular place for jallikkattu, and consequently facilitated the conduct of the event at these
places every year, thereby making them more popular than other places.
Printable version | Oct 23, 2018 12:58:59 PM |
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jallikkattu-protests-started/article22481067.ece
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