The annual Kambala (slush track buffalo race) being organised by Dr. Shivaram Karanth Pilikula Nisargadhama at Pilikula here is likely to be back after five years.
Minister in-charge of Dakshina Kannada Kota Srinivasa Poojary, at a meeting here on Thursday, instructed the officials to make preparations to conduct the Pilikula Kambala either by the end of January or in February 2020.
The meeting was attended, among others, by U. T. Khader and Umanath A Kotian, MLAs, Sindhu B. Rupesh, Deputy Commissioner, and R. Selvamani, Chief Executive Officer, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat.
The Minister asked the officials to prepare a proposal on the funds needed to organise the event and send it to the State government. Mr. Poojary said that he would get it sanctioned.
The Nisargadhama, promoted by the district administration, organised Kambala last in December 2014. It stopped organising it later after an animal rights organisation, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, raised objections against holding all types of Kambala events citing cruelty to animals.
Kambala was not held in the coastal districts during 2016 due to a ban imposed by the High Court of Karnataka in November 2016 on a PIL filed by PETA.
Later, the President promulgated The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Karnataka Amendment) Ordinance 2017, which was valid till January 20, 2018, paving the way for conducting Kambala in 2017. Though PETA challenged the Ordinance in the Supreme Court, the court refused to pass an interim stay on the Ordinance. Hence, some Kambalas were held in the 2017-18 season. Kambala organisers called it as “traditional sports”.
Now, though the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Karnataka Second Amendment) Act, 2017 is in place paving the way for continuing Kambala, PETA again questioned the Constitutional validity of the new law in the Supreme Court in September 2018 seeking a direction to strike it down.
Following its petition seeking to overturn the amended Act, which also allows holding bull and bullock cart races in the State, the Supreme Court has issued notices to the State government, the Animal Welfare Board of India and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
