A total of 29 people sustained minor injuries at the jallikattu event held in Alanganallur on Thursday. The event which was largely incident-free, however, saw the death of one spectator who suffered a cardiac arrest, officials said.
According to sources, Sadayandi, 45, from Alanganallur, who was watching the sport from the audience gallery complained of dizziness and was immediately taken to the local Urban Primary Health Centre. The patient was then referred to the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) where he was declared ‘brought dead’. Sadayandi is survived by his wife and three children.
District Collector S. Natarajan, who addressed the media after the start of jallikattu, said only six tamers were referred to the GRH. Many others sustained only minor injuries.
He said, “A total of 748 tamers were registered and 697 took part. A total of 1,400 bulls were registered but only 729 were able to enter the arena. It is a matter of pride to announce that there were only minor injuries.”
The players who entered in batches of 100 competed in eight rounds with finalists (those who tamed more than three bulls) entering the last round.
Revenue Minister R. B. Udayakumar, Health Minister C. Vijaya Bhaskar and several other local MLAs took part in the event.
Crowds cheered as K. Ranjith Kumar from Alanganallur was adjudged the best tamer and a ‘Chelli Amman temple bull’ from Paramabuti was chosen as the best bull. Both winners will receive cars from Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam before the end of the week.
Attractive prizes, including home theatre systems, mobile phones, bikes, cycles, sarees and gift hampers, were awarded. Some even took to distributing sizeable cash prizes.
Personnel deployed
To ensure safety, 1,500 police personnel from across the south zone were deputed. Ten teams from the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries treated the injured bulls.
During the event, five bulls rushing out of the collection area fell into two wells in Alanganallur.
The bulls jumped into the wells though barricades were erected. They were rescued by the locals within 20 minutes, said the police department.
100 injured
Meanwhile, over 100 persons were injured in jallikattu at four villages in Tiruchi, Pudukottai and Karur districts. Nine of the seriously injured were referred to hospitals. At Avarangadu in Tiruchi district, 71 persons were injured. Five of them, including three spectators and two bull owners, were referred to the Government Hospital at Manapparai.
Forty persons were injured in the event at Rachandar Thirumalai in Karur district.
