Thrissur: Six teams are gearing up for the annual ‘pulikkali’ to be held at Swaraj Round here on Thursday as part of Onam celebrations. The women tigresses who took part for the first time in the 200-year-old history of the event last year will be present this time also. According to the organisers, there will be 12 female tigresses. N.A. Vinaya, ASI at Kerala Police Academy, Divya Divakaran, a higher secondary school teacher from Nilambur, and E. Sakeena, fashion designer from Kozhikode, had created history last year by donning pulikkali attire for Viyyur Desam.
The pulikkali sangams have put up Facebook posts expressing their interest to include the women in the gala. A retired teacher from Palakkad, Ramani, and theatre artist Sujatha will appear as tigresses. “Nearly 20 women expressed their willingness and 12 of them will take part in the show,” said deputy mayor of Thrissur municipality, Varghese Kandamkulathi.
The corporation is giving an aid of Rs 1.5 lakh to all the six teams. It is learnt that as several teams did not get sponsors this year, there was a decline in the number of participants. President of Ayyanthole pulikkali sangam V. Gopinathan said that for each team there would be an expense of about Rs 10 lakh. Without contributions from the public and sponsors, it was difficult to come up with a pulikkali team, he said.
