TN plea to Centre on holding bull taming sport

As pressure mounted on it to take steps for conducting the bull-taming sport 'Jallikattu', Tamil Nadu government today asked the Centre to denotify the animal from the list of performing animals to facilitate holding the event, saying the 2,000-year-old sport had religious and cultural overtones.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said the 'abrupt ban' issued by Environment Ministry in 2011 categorising bull as a 'performing animal' along with bears, monkeys, tigers, panthers and lions had 'shocked' farmers in the state.
"Considering the fact that Jallikattu is viewed as a cultural festival with religious overtones, the rural farmers of Tamil Nadu have been shocked by the abrupt ban on the sport which has been cherished and savoured for centuries. The ban has hurt the sentiments of millions of rural farmers for whom this sport is a religious, social and cultural event," he said.

In the letter, which comes against the backdrop of protests being held, especially in southern districts like Madurai, the Chief Minister said the event dates to the Sangam era, adding it was a 2,000 year-old traditional sport.
Recalling that his predecessor and former chief minister Jayalalithaa had taken consistent efforts to remove bulls from the list "considering the cultural, traditional and religious sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu," he said discussions were held between officials of his government and Centre on January 7 and 12 this year on the matter.
While the state government was hopeful that Centre would issue a notification removing bull from the list, reports had stated that Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar had said a notification would be issued shortly to ensure that the event, coinciding with harvest festival of Pongal, would be held.

However, the Centre has not yet issued this notification, he said.
With the Pongal festival fast approaching, he requested Modi to honour the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu by instructing officials of the Environment and Forests Ministry to take immediate action to denotify bulls from the list of performing animals so that Jallikattu could be conducted from January 16 as per the usual practice.