Jallikattu festival

Last Updated10/01/2022

District administration in Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Ranipet and Tirupattur, have banned the conduct of Jallikattu events, ahead of the Pongal festival due to steep rise in the daily cases of COVID-19.

A tradition over 2,000 years old, Jallikattu is a competitive sport as well as an event to honour bull owners who rear them for mating.
It is a violent sport in which contestants try to tame a bull for a prize; if they fail, the bull owner wins the prize.
It is popular in Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Theni, Pudukkottai and Dindigul districts of Tamil Nadu known as the Jallikattu belt.
It is celebrated in the second week of January, during the Tamil harvest festival, Pongal.

Jallikattu is considered a traditional way for the peasant community to preserve their pure-breed native bulls.
At a time when cattle breeding is often an artificial process, conservationists and peasants argue that Jallikattu is a way to protect these male animals which are otherwise used only for meat if not for ploughing.
Kangayam, Pulikulam, Umbalachery, Bargur and Malai Maadu are among the popular native cattle breeds used for Jallikattu. The owners of these premium breeds command respect locally.

In 2011, the Centre added bulls to the list of animals whose training and exhibition is prohibited.
In 2014, the Supreme Court banned the bull-taming sport, ruling on a petition that cited the 2011 notification.
The state government has legalised these events, which has been challenged in the court.
In 2018, the Supreme Court referred the Jallikattu case to a Constitution Bench, where it is pending now.

Whether the Jallikattu tradition can be protected as a cultural right of the people of Tamil Nadu which is a fundamental right.
Article 29 (1) against the Rights of animals.
Article 29 (1) mandates that “any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same”.

Karnataka too passed a law to save a similar sport, called Kambala.
Except in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, where bull-taming and racing continue to be organised, these sports remain banned in all other states including Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra due to the 2014 ban order from the Supreme Court.