While Jallikattu united the country with people even breaking the regional lines to vouch support for the ancient Indian game, it seems that the news of ‘fox jallikattu’ being allowed in Chinnamanaickenpalayam near Salem, Tamil Nadu, would make many of them feel aggrieved.
Foxes come under the Wildlife Protection Act and yet the forest officials did not try to stop the fox jallikattu that obviously has no mass appeal or any benefits to the animal itself which is both shy and dangerous. It is due to this that its mouth was tied to prevent it from biting the participants while fox jallikattu was played.
This tying the mouth does not happen in the bull jallikattu for which whole of Tamil Nadu united fearing that its absence would lead to the end of the Indian bulls.
Fox jallikattu- Did you hear it for the first time?
Fox jallikattu story is a sensational and an unbelievable one, but the Times of India report, says that it happens every year on the day of ‘Kaanum Pongal!’
The villagers, the TOI report said brought this fox and worshiped it, as happens in a traditional Jallikattu game, but the report is unclear from where this animal was brought from and from whom. Selling of wildlife is a serious offense and Indian fox, although wild, are a rare and a very shy species.
This fox was garlanded with flowers, which is the traditional practice, and then the hind leg of the fox was tied with a thin rope while in Jallikattu, a bull is free to run.
A. Suresh Balan, one of the organisers of the event told the TOI that the animal will be released into the forest but it is important to investigate from where it was brought and the people involved in its sale and purchase.
Images courtesy: Times of India.