Seven people died in various parts of Tamil Nadu on Sunday during jallikattu events, some of them spectators. While some of the deaths involved participants who were injured while playing the bull-taming sport, in other cases spectators got hurt because rules on separating them from the animals were not followed, according to The Times of India.
In Bargur town, Krishnagiri district, two people died after they were knocked down by charging bulls and sustained head injuries, during a variant of the jallikattu practice known as “eruthu vidum vizha”. In Rayakottai, Krishnagiri, a man believed to have been drunk died of suffocation after he was pushed down an trampled by a crowd rushing to avoid a bull, the report said.
Two others died in separate jallikattu events in Madurai district. A teenager was gored to death in Sivaganga, and a spectator died in Thoothukudi.
The debate around jallikattu gained ground following statewide protests in Tamil Nadu against the Supreme Court-imposed ban on the bull-taming sport. The agitations forced the Tamil Nadu government to pass an ordinance lifting the ban and allowing the practice.
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