Cockfight gaining popularity in Vellore

Vellore: After jallikattu, the game of cockfight is becoming popular in the villages of Vellore district.

Jayakar, a native of Annangkudi village, near Latheri, in the district,who owns more than 20 fightercocks, also called sanda ko­z­h­is, trains 20 of his birds to fight for an hour. He is hopeful they would win in tournaments to be held during the Pongal festival.

Jayakar now breeds and owns 10 varieties of cocks like gulva and yaakuth (with hair on the face), peela (white and red coloured coc­ks) sita (white), jawa and kadher varieties (combination of yellow and black colo­urs).

He said it takes at least 21 days for the chicks to come out of the egg and incubation is done by good variety hens. Jayakar said, “Gene­rally, we get information about coc­kfight tour­naments thr­­o­­ugh friends.

No specific notice or publicity is given to the part­i­­cipants.” We take normally 10 to 15 sanda kozhis with us for an hour’s tournament. If a sanda kozhi wins in a tournament, the participant wins one gram­ of gold as prize.

Sometimes, the prize money ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh with medals. If the two fighting roosters show equal valour, and no one wins in the fight within an hour, the match would be concluded as drawn and both roosters given silver coins, says Jaya­kar. The winner is declared if one of the roosters is unable to fight or runs away from the ring.

Sanda kozhis are specially fed with two boiled eggs, dates, jow­ar, millets, oats, badam and pista nuts in the mornings, and, in the afternoon, coria­n­der curry leaves are given. At night, they must be given roasted mutton balls for 21 days before the tournament begins. “It will cost at least Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 for an owner to raise a sanda kozhi,” says Jayakar.

He hopes the training he has given would help him win the three-day tournament to be held in R.K. Pettai, near Sholingur, from January 17.

A nominal entrance fee of Rs 1,000 would be co­l­l­e­cted from the participants to meet contingencies in the tournaments and also to provide the prizes, he said. His roosters have so far won 50 cups and medals. He said in Vellore district alone there were more than 600 persons owning sanda kozhis.