Coimbatore ready for bullock cart race

CHENNAI: Until the jallikattu ban was lifted on Friday , several prized bulls, bred over centuries, like the Kangeyam, Puliyakulam and Tiruchengodu were headed for the slaughterhouse.Now, with the sport's revival, there is hope among breeders and sport enthusiasts that lesser-known breeds like the Bargur or Semmarai, Palamalai, and Umbalachery will find new patrons.“One of the most beautiful species, the Alambadi, is now officially extinct. We had as many as 11.74 lakh Kangeyam bulls in 1990. The population has fallen to 15,000,“ says Karthikeya Sivasenapathy of the Kangeyam Cattle Research Foundation. The drastic fall in native cattle breed population can be directly attributed to the 1998 entry of PETA in India, he says. “The activism against the sport over the next decade nearly depleted native cattle stock.“Even the Puliyakulam breed, common in Madurai, Theni and Sivaganga, which will be seen in action in rural arenas come January 16, has fallen from 1.30 lakh before the year 2004, when stringent conditions were laid down on the conduct of the sport, to about 25,000, according to data from the research foundation. “We used to have a healthy 4:1 cow to bull ratio in Tamil Nadu. Now, thanks to PETA and AWBI, we have seen it dip to 8:1,“ says Sivasenapathy . The need of the hour is to preserve native cattle breeds by giving incentives to farmers. “One needs to see them in action to realise the beauty of these breeds and he need to preserve them,“ adds professor Ravikumar.“Only in Tamil Nadu, be cause of Jallikattu and rekha a races, there is a healthy male to female ratio,“ says former AWBI member Gaurav Aziz.Coimbatore: Pongal seems to have arrived a week earlier for the hundreds of rekla enthusiasts in the western districts of Tamil Nadu. On Friday, as news of the central government's decision to allow bullock cart races reached the rural hinterland, villagers broke into celebrations.Large groups of farmers and youngsters in parts of Coimbatore, Pollachi and Erode were seen bursting crackers and distributing sweets to celebrate the decision. “Pongal is today for us,“ said an exuberant treasurer of the Rekla Federation, S Jeya Prakash.Within hours people jumped into business getting their bulls ready for the event. Though the bull owners say it will take at least 60 days to prepare for the race in a full-fledged manner, they hope to conduct a race on Pongal day.The federation said they were planning to hold one race every fortnight. “We will conduct a race every 15 days inviting bulls from Tirupur, Erode, Dindigul and Pollachi,“ said Prakash, who owns two pairs of Rekla racing bulls.T Shanthakumar, another farmer from Kinathukidavu who owns six Kangeyam bulls, says the number of racing bulls have come down to almost a fifth due to the racing ban brought in last year. “We used to have at least 300 pairs of racing bulls across the four districts, now they have come down to hardly 60 pairs,“ he said.“It will take us at least two years to rear another 240 pairs to make it return to its original numbers,“ said rekla bull breeder, A Kaalimuthu, who owns 10 racing bulls.