TIRUPATI: Thousands of people congregated on the streets of A Rangampet village in Chandragiri mandal of Chittoor district to witness ‘Pasuvula Panduga’, which off late is being called ‘Andhra Jallikattu’, on the occasion of Sankranti.
Like every year, the farmers in Rangampet, who have immense pride for their cattle, let them loose on the streets to run free. Hundreds of cattle, which were bathed and decorated grandly ran from one end of the village to the other with not just villagers and people from Chittoor and neighbouring districts, even those from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka standing on both sides of the road to witness the event.
Creating dust devils behind them, the cattle ran and enthusiastic youth standing on both sides of the street tried to snatch away the prize (a plain wooden plate decorated grandly with colour papers) tied to their foreheads between the horns.
Though the cattle run is held in Diguvuru and Eguvuru of A Rangampet village every year, it was not organised in Digavuru this time due to fever prevalent there.After usual rituals of Bali Puja and Poli, the cattle were let loose by the villagers from one end of the village to the other. Cattle from seven nearby villages also participated in the run.
When asked about the court ban on ‘Jallikattu’, the villagers argued that the event was not Jallikattu. They say it is just ‘Pasuvula Panduga’, which is being organised for several generations.
Chittoor district SP Rajasekhar Babu and Tirupati Urban SP Abhishek Mohanty oversaw the security arrangements for Pasuvula Panduga.Two Additional SPs were also deployed to thwart any untoward incident during the event. Fortunately there were no reports of any injuries during the free run of cattle.