55 injured in Jallikattu

Stone-pelting and injury to 55 people marred Tamil Nadu's age-old sport of taming wild bulls in Alanganallur on Thursday in connection with Pongal (the harvest festival) and local temple festivals.

According to police, three persons suffered "major injuries" while 52 others suffered minor injuries during jallikattu.

The police had to resort to baton-charge to disperse an unruly section of the crowd, which tried to enter the arena.

This is the third major jallikattu event being held in the state after the Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed its earlier ban on the sport conducted in the 11 southern districts coinciding with the harvest festival.

The apex court, while passing orders on a revision plea by the state government, imposed a series of conditions to ensure the safety of the bulls and spectators.

At least 129 people were injured in the two events held on Wednesday in Palamedu in Madurai District and Periyasuriyur near Tiruchirappalli.

Two layers of barricades were up around the sports arena to ensure the safety of spectators who included more than 100 foreign tourists.

All the participants, who took on the bulls, were checked while the Blue Cross official examined the animals to see if they had been intoxicated. Trouble broke out when a section of the crowd tried to enter the ground and pelted stones at the police, in which two policemen were injured.

The officials claimed that for the first time none of the spectators was injured.

More than 1,000 police had been deployed to provide security at the venue. The doctors also ensured that the horns of the bulls were not sharpened than the permitted level.

Police had installed video cameras to closely watch the entire area and take action against miscreants.

In a related development, a 60-year old man was reported to have died due to stampede in the gallery area at Palamedu on Wednesday, the police said.

Meanwhile, P ajasekharan, the chairman of the Veera Vilaiattu Kuzhu (sports committee), told reporters that the government should bring an ordinance to ensure that jallikattu continued year after year.