Jallikattu Sports Stadium - A Mega Project of Tamil Nadu Government!

As per research, the Jallikattu game was a prominent game during the Indus Valley civilization and has a rich history of 4500 years.

The Tamil Nadu government is all set to construct a Jallikattu sports stadium in Alanganallur, Madurai. The authorities have announced that the sports stadium shall be constructed by 2024. The minister also shared that the stadium shall be constructed in an area of 16 acres. The process for the land acquisition has also commenced as per Tamil Nadu Minister E.V. Velu.

Although, a lot of lands belonging to the forest department is adjacent to this area. However Velu said that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Stalin has instructed that this stadium should be constructed without acquiring the land belonging to the forest department and without harming the environment.

History of Jallikattu

As per the researchers, the Jallikattu sport has a history of 4500 years which represents the civilization of Tamils. In his report, Archaeologist Iravatham Mahadevan stated that the evidence for that have been found in the Indus Valley. Similarly, R. Balakrishnan IAS has written explaining the same concept through his research.

As of now, there was no dedicated stadium to Jallikattu. However, with this the sports will has its own practice ground. All the people of Tamil Nadu are happy because the Tamil Nadu government has come forward to build a stadium in Alanganallur, which is famous for Jallikattu at the world level. Especially the people of Madurai are celebrating this announcement.

Purpose of Jallikattu Stadium

There are the Jallikattu competitions, a testimony of the Indus Valley Civilization. Eruthazhuvuthal (New word is jallikattu) competition has been going on for the last 4500 years without a break.

So, some dream that 'if we eliminate the eruthazhuvuthal competition we can destroy the remnants of our culture'. We are fighting to save Jallikattu by giving more importance to it.

If there are 500 jallikattu bulls in our town, 20 of them will participate vigorously in the competition and win. The farmers will try to breed them thus trying to get bulls of good species. This will indirectly produce good quality bulls.

With this realisation, Chief Minister M K Stalin built the jallikattu stadium. This will also be helpful in saving the lives of the bulls will be saved post the regulation of this game. If the bulls are alive, the cows will be alive. If domestic cows live, our cultural phenomenon will function smoothly. So this is an important initiative at the international level" says Karthikeya Shiva Senathipathy.

We spoke to DMK's Environment Team State Secretary Karthikeya ShivaSenadhipati to get some more information on the announcement. "Jallikattu is not only a traditional game of Tamils. It is a grassroots game. We have to save it. Caste differences can be destroyed only through this game" he said.

He further said, "Jallikattu is a sport of backward and scheduled caste people. Cricket is the sport of the elite. In this game, all the high-ranking people belong to the upper caste. They play international cricket matches. Even in this, only a certain community gets opportunities"

"The reason for this is very simple. In that game, you don't have to touch each other's bodies. But in games like Koko and Kabaddi, you have to touch each other's bodies and play. Hence upper castes are not interested in such contests.

The sport of Jallikattu has an extension of the Indus Valley Civilization. In ancient times, inscriptions refer to this sport as Eruthazhuvuthal, Manchu virattu. The term jallikattu came after the reign of the Nayak kings of Madurai. Coins are tied to the bull's horn. The soldiers tame the bull and take the coins tied to its horns. Hence the new term 'Jallikattu' was coined for this.

Some of the upper classes were obstructing the jallikattu competition. After understanding it correctly, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi was the first to enact the Jallikattu Regulatory Act," said Karthikeya Shiv Sena President who continued to speak to us.

Jallikattu Protection Act

Ex-CM M. Karunanidhi got permission for the Jallikattu Protection Act from the Governor. But according to the amendment brought by the then Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, the Beta organization got a ban on Jallikattu in the Supreme Court.

Lakhs of students protested at Marina Beach in Chennai against the ban. As a result, Jallikattu got due justice. We have made some demands to the Tamil Nadu government at this time when the stadium is being built for Jallikattu. We have asked for a museum to be set up for traditional livestock in Tamil Nadu.

We have 5 traditional breeds of cattle. Apart from these, we have been informed that we want a museum for dogs, chickens, and goats. The government has accepted our demand.

Some people like to stop jallikattu from being held. There were two ulterior motives behind it. The first reason is the gradual importation of foreign cattle breeds into our country by destroying the traditional breeds of cattle here.

The second reason is to prevent natural inbreeding among our cows. A certain company owns the sperm rights to artificially breed cows around the world. If reproduction occurs naturally, this company cannot do business.

Similarly, the gene for chicken breeds is held by only two companies. To artificially reproduce a cow, one has to pay 2 thousand rupees to buy sperm. If you sell one crore sperm per year, you can earn 2000 crore rupees. At least 50,000 crores worth of business can be done if we count the whole of India.

In Tamil Nadu, cow insemination occurs naturally, hampering such a lucrative industry. So, some plan to eradicate it. This commercial motive is hidden behind the abolition of jallikattu.