Alanganallur jallikattu to go trim and exciting this year

Madurai: The renowned Alanganallur jallikattu, which is scheduled to be held on January 17, will be conducted with certain tweaks this year, to make the competition more exciting and to ensure security. This year’s event will follow a ‘group stage-and-a-final’ format and the number of bull tamers has been restricted to around 800. In the last two years more than 1,000 tamers were issued tokens (registration) to participate in the event.
The organizing committee members and officials from the Madurai district administration issued tokens to participants after conducting medical check-ups and proof verification at Alanganallur in Madurai district on Saturday.
This year, in each batch, a maximum of 100 people would be entering the arena, out of which the best performing four to five tamers would be selected. At the end of the eighth round, around 40 people – the top performers from all rounds – would qualify to enter the arena again and tame the bulls in the ‘finals’. Based on the performance in the finals, the best participants would be rewarded.
J Sundarrajan from the Alanganallur jallikattu organizing committee said that this format would make the event more exciting and also help the jury choose the top performers in a more efficient manner. The prizes include a car each for the overall best bull tamer and bull raiser, a bike each for runner ups and items such as washing machines and cycles for other good performers.
Police and the revenue officials said that major emphasis was given on restricting the number of bull-tamers as there were security issues during registration in the previous years. Zonal deputy tahsildar of Alanganallur K Ravichandran said that in the previous years, tokens were issued without any restrictions. "As a result, it led to security issues and police had to resort to lathi charge. Hence this year, only certain number of people were made to undergo medical checkup and further verifications by the revenue officials and tokens were issued to them," Ravichandran said. Those who were given the tokens would undergo a medical/ alcohol check-up again on the jallikattu day. It will also ensure that all of them got a chance to enter the arena.
Meanwhile, the medical team said that a total of 29 people, were disqualified to participate in the event citing overweight, underweight, hypertension and alcohol abuse as the major reasons.
Medical check-up for the bulls was over at the respective veterinary centres and bull raisers would undergo registration procedure on Monday.