MANGALORE: Over a thousand students from different schools and colleges boycotted classes and thronged the streets to protest the ban on Kambala, the state’s traditional buffalo-racing sport. The protest was called by the Mangalore All College Students Association.
The students along with anti-Kambala ban activists from all over the coast formed a human chain which extended for two kilometers in the city. They assembled at the city's main intersection at Hampankatta at 11 am for a demonstration which caused major traffic jams.
The students raised slogans against the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for allegedly depicting Kambala as a violent folk practice. Kambala is a traditional sport held mainly in rural Karnataka where two pairs of buffaloes race each other under the control of their farmer in fields of mud and slush. The ban on the sport was placed in October 2014 after several animal welfare groups cited it as animal torture.