Rs 20L deposit condition derails 25 bull runs in Vellore villages

VELLORE: Bull runs have been cancelled in nearly 25 villages in Vellore district this year, following the district administration stipulating tough conditions, which the organisers are unable to meet, sources said.

Unlike jallikattu in the southern districts, bull run is the favorite Pongal sport in integrated Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts. The run envisages a bull being allowed to run along a dedicated, barricaded path while onlookers slap and egg the animal.

Though 43 bull runs which were permitted after Mattu Pongal were completed till date, another 30 villages which applied to the Vellore district administration for permission in February and till March 10 were bluntly told that each bull run had to have insurance for Rs 1,20,000 in addition to a bank deposit of Rs 20 lakh.

A bull run organiser who spoke on condition of anonymity said “we had no other go other than to cancel the programme as there is no way we can collect Rs 20 lakh from locals for the bank deposit.”

Another anonymous bull tamer said, “The conditions seem to be specifically aimed at stopping bull runs as all earlier permitted bull runs in the district had only the insurance condition and not the Rs 20 lakh deposit demand.

A specific insurance company, which was given permission to insure bull runs in the Vellore district, was highly reluctant to insure future bull runs as spectator death necessitated payment of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin. “As many claims came up for settlement this year, we are unable to insure further programmes,” an official revealed.

What galled organisers was that when they tried to get insurance from companies in other districts, the Vellore district administration refused to accept it. One village near Vellore on the Tiruvannamalai Road was able to get the programme insured by an insurance company in Karur which the administration refused to accept and demanded that only runs insured by the insurance company permitted for Vellore district would be accepted.