Five persons lost their lives in Jallikattu in the last four days across Tamil Nadu. While four persons were gored to death by the charging bulls in the arena itself, one person succumbed to injuries later in hospital. But this has not prevented the organisers from going ahead with the controversial sport in different venues in the State.

Three bull tamers were killed in Madurai’s Avaniiyapuram village, while two deaths were reported from Alanganalloor village and Tiruchirappalli district.

All those who lost their lives were of below 30 years of age. A six-year-old girl, Vinoba, has been admitted to hospital with grievous injuries she suffered when a bull which came out of the arena hit her. She was watching the sport with her father when the mishap occurred.

More than 50 persons have been admitted to different hospitals with serious injuries.

“The situation in Tamil Nadu is serious. It is like the gladiators fighting the bulls in the coliseums in Rome. People cheer up the bulls as they charge into the people from the vadivasal (narrow gate separating the bulls from the bull tamers). The sad thing is that though the human beings know that it is a sporting event, the poor animals are ignorant about the sports and pastime,” said an animal rights activist.

She pointed out that those who died in the event are people in the prime of youth.

Though Jallikattu was banned by the Supreme Court, the Tamil Nadu Government brought in an amendment to bypass the court verdict through an Ordinance so that the sporting event could be held without hindrance. Though the district administrations claim that Jallikattu was being held under stringent security measures, it has not helped in bringing down the death rate. The year 2019 saw 50 persons losing their lives in the sport.

“That’s the official figure. We do not have the count of people succumbing to the injuries suffered in the fight. Since the taming of bulls are held in different venues, the fate of persons suffering injuries are forgotten immediately. In most of the cases, it’s the breadwinner of the family who ends up as the martyr,” said Mangombu Gopalakrishnan, who watches the sport without fail.

Gopalakrishnan, a film director-cum-lyricist, is of the view that the event should be banned with immediate effect to prevent the death of the bread winners of the families. The animal rights activist and Gopalakrishnan also said that though the organisers claim that Jallikattu is held in connection with the harvest festival of Pongal, the sport lasts up to October every year.

“This means that there is no let up in the number of deaths happening in villages. In most cases, the venues are remote villages which are inaccessible,” he said.

Dr S Kalyanaraman, Indologist, is of the view that the modern day Jallikattu is nothing but the distorted version of Eru Thazhuthal (hugging of bulls) by farmers as part of showing respect to the animals that help them in farming operations,” said Kalyanaraman.

The initial days of Jallikattu which were held amidst tight security resulted in the death of five persons. Animal rights activists are tight-lipped about what is in store for the people as the rules become lax in coming days as the number of Jallikattu events spread out across the State.

In another development, the number of rooster fights which are held as part of Pongal festivities too have gone up. Rooster fights are games involving high stake gambling and are a rage among the rural folks.