Chennai: Several hundreds of jallikattu supporters, who responded to a request on social media, created a sensation in the city on a quiet Sunday morning when they participated in a Walkathon demanding that both the State and Centre initiate concrete steps to facilitate the conduct of the traditional bull-taming sport in the middle of the month when the Pongal festival is celebrated.
Scores of volunteers from several districts, including Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Madurai and Virudhunagar descended upon the city and lent support to the #Savejallikattu movement launched by the NGO - Care and Welfare.
“We launched a social media campaign urging all lovers and supporters of jallikattu to participate in the walkathon to prevail upon the government to ensure the conduct of jallikattu this Pongal. Though we anticipated about 4,000, more than 10,000 youths, also including students, took part in the walkathon held from the lighthouse,” said R. Nagendra Prabu, event coordinator.
They were all drawn by online messages spread through social media. The first time such an event was held in the city in support of jallikattu and the organisers brought a bull named Ramu from Thiruporur and displayed him. Farmers too had lent support to this massive awareness campaign. The volunteers held banners and posters demanding that the sport be held from this year. Folk percussion instruments added rhythm to the scene at Marina.
The Supreme Court in January last had struck down the Centre’s notification seeking to permit jallikattu despite a ban on this sport of valour in the state.
At Chepauk, 1,500 members sat in a day-long fast seeking to address the agrarian distress in the state owing to drought.
