: Alanganallur observed a dawn-to-dusk bandh on Saturday condemning the ruling of the Supreme Court banning jallikattu.
The villagers hoisted black flags in several spots, including the 400-year-old “Vaadivasal.”
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“The Supreme Court was misled with false details about torture of bulls. We are planning to meet the Chief Minister soon,” said J. Sundararajan, president of the jallikattu organising committee, in the village.
The sport is a part of religious rituals observed at Muniyandi temple and promotes friendly relations with neighbouring villages, villagers said.
“Ten years ago, when there were no regulations, we tamed the bulls by holding their tails. With stringent regulations in place in the recent years, it only takes a few seconds for the bulls to pass the arena. We do not harm the bulls in any way and so there is no need to ban jallikattu,” said G. Sridhar, who had been taming the bulls for 25 years.
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“The Supreme Court judgment is extremely hurtful. Banning the sport will lead to the death of an ancient Tamil tradition,” said G.L. Renugaeswari, whose family rears two bulls.
Villagers say the ban is against the will of God and would result in Cholera outbreak. “More than 30 years ago, there was an occasion when we did not conduct jallikattu. And there was a cholera outbreak that year,” said A. Alagu (67), who has been rearing the temple bull for 25 years.
Students disappointedBesides, plunging the villagers into grief, the ban has also brought disappointment to architecture students of a Chennai-based institution who have designed a project to develop Alanganallur into a cultural village.
“Our project included a permanent gallery and other infrastructure. The village panchayat was keen to implement it,” said N. Azarudin, a student.