Police personnel deployed for jallikattu at Alanganallur in Madurai district.
| Photo Credit: R. ASHOK

Jallikattu events in Madurai city and Alanganallur and Palamedu went off smoothly though the congregation of spectators, bull tamers, bull owners and bulls was large in numbers at all the three places.

Much planning and execution in safe conduct of the event by the police had made them successful events. 

It all started with the Avaniyapuram jallikattu on Pongal day.

Being the first jallikattu of the region, tamers and bull owners were eager to participate in the event. Over 1,100 bulls were registered. “Jallikattu having become an annual event, every year we try to improve the safety measures learning from past experience. With bulls losing patience while waiting in boxes for their turn to get into the vadivasal, this time, we made narrow passages for nearly one km,” a senior police officer said.

This prevented the mad rush of bull owners to jostle among themselves to get their bulls into the queue system on a first-cum-first-served basis.

Bulls were called in batches of 100 animals as per the numerical order of their registration at every one hour. 

With wire mesh put up on the barricades, the bulls could not do any jumping, kicking or goring of bull owners, their assistants of other bulls.

 The orderly fashion of entry solved half the problem. 

In the rural areas of Alanganallur and Palamedu, the district police had cordoned off both the assembling points and bull collection points. Except for owners and their assistants, no one could enter those areas, Superintendent of Police B.K. Arvind said.

Besides, the wide and long riverbed in Palamedu provided good jallikattu turf not just the tamers and bulls, but also for the spectators with the best view for good part of the crowd standing outside the double barricades on either sides of the riverbed. 

However, the small arena, limited seating capacity and narrow lanes for barricaded place offered very little space for the spectators, a police officer said. Hence, the crowd had to go beyond the arena area even to see the bulls. 

Even though only one assistant is allowed to accompany the bull owner while taking the bull into the vadivasal, it required at least six to seven persons from the owners’ side to chase the bulls that come out into the collection points. 

“In the initial stage where few bulls are let into the play area, the number of persons and the bulls in the collection area is very few and it is easy for them to catch the animals after their run,” the SP said. But as time passed, the number of bulls in the collection points went up as did the number of persons trying to catch them. 

The presence of police was limited to standing safe on cargo vehicles. “All that the policeman could do is to give instructions over public-address system for the bull catchers to remain alert as bulls would run helter-skelter. This time one of those accompanying the bull owner was killed as he was not mindful about the ferocious animals around him few metres away from the collection point,” the SP said.

He said that hundreds of policemen present inside and outside the gallery helped crowd management easy.