TIRUCHY: Even as people from almost every nook and corner of Tamil Nadu were enthusiastically getting ready to celebrate Pongal on Saturday, Sooriyur, a village famous for jallikattu in Tiruchy district, wore a gloomy look on Friday, with the residents of that place hoisting black flags and the menfolk having their heads tonsured in protest against the strict regulations governing the conduct of this popular rustic sport.
The residents of Sooriyur decided on this form of protest as the district administration had made them to run from pillar to post when they sought a clarification on the Supreme Court directive about the conduct of jallikattu.
‘For several decades, it has been customary for us to conduct jallikattu on Thai 2, that is(Jan 16. Our relatives from across the State never fail to visit the village on that day’, B Subramanian (43), one of the organisers of the Sooriyur jallikattu told Express.
Subramanian said, ‘On Jan 11, the Collector had stated that we had to take the photograph of the bulls in different angles and get the clearance of the Animal Welfare Board of India in Chennai and the local authorities’.
The formalities might take at least a month’s time which meant that we could never conduct the event on the stipulated date.
Following a meeting on Thursday they people of Sooriyur decided to hoist black flags atop their houses and youths tonsure their heads. This apart posters were also put up announcing boycott of the ensuing Assembly elections.