Alanganallur Jallikattu held with usual fervour, 45 injured

Minister for Commercial Taxes and Registration P Moorthy flagged off the event in the presence of Madurai Collector S Aneesh Sekhar, Commissioner of Corporation KP Karthikeyan and SP V Baskaran. Amid enthusiastic applause from spectators, as many as 115 bulls were released in the first batch and tamers took on the animals that aggressively ran through the vaadivaasal and hit the arena.

A total of 1,020 bulls were let loose into the arena in eight rounds till dusk.

Karthik of Karuppayurani, Madurai, emerged victorious by taming 21 bulls and was awarded a car sponsored by DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin.

Ram Kumar, son of the soil (Alanganallur), who tamed 19 bulls, came second to win a motor bike. Another tamer from Sithalankudi village, Gopala Krishnan also received a motor bike for taming 13 bulls.

Tamilselvam, the bull owner from Karkurichi, Pudukkottai district, bagged the first prize and he was also offered a car sponsored by Chief Minister MK Stalin followed in second place by M Muthuramalingam, former MLA of Thirumangalam who got a bike and Thirupathi of Kulamangalam, who won the third place and got a milch cow and calf, sources said.

At the valedictory function, Moorthy along with Minister for Finance PTR Palanivel Thiaga Rajan presented the prizes to the winners.

Madurai Deputy Director of Health Services T Senthil Kumar said a total of 45 persons, including tamers and bull owners, were injured. Among those hurt, 26 victims have been referred to Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai, he said.