Tirupati: A fiftyfour-year-old villager died and four others were seriously injured in the traditional bull-taming sport or race - a variant of Tamil Nadu’s Jallikattu – in Erranagepalli of V Kota mandal in Chittoor district on Tuesday.
According to the police, the deceased was MK Seenappa, a resident of Erranagepalli. He was injured on his neck and abdomen by the horns of a cow. He was watching the sport by standing on the side of the narrow passage through which bulls were made run amok in the village on Tuesday morning.
The villagers rushed Seenappa to the V. Kota government area hospital but he succumbed to the injuries. The injured were also shifted to the hospital, the V. Kota police said, adding that cases were registered against the organisers of the event.
There was no police permission to organise the bull-taming events, but the dangerous sport was being organised in different parts of the district in the name of “Goppa Mylaru Panduga”. Bull-taming sports are quite common during the Sankranti festivities in Chittoor and Tirupati districts, especially in the villages abutting Tamil Nadu.
On Tuesday, hundreds of people gathered in Erranagepalli to watch the bull-taming sport. The participants vied with each other to tame the cattle with decorated horns that ran amok through the narrow pedestrian passage of the village amid the beating of drums.
People lined up on both sides of the passage tried to tame the panicked cattle and snatch the decorative planks tied to the horns of the cattle.
