Following the jallikattu protests, people in the coastal districts of Karnataka take up the cause of kambala, a buffalo racing event that is going through a difficult phase of transition.
THE MASS PROTESTS IN TAMIL NADU against the ban on jallikattu have galvanised people in Karnataka, particularly in the two coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, to demand the revocation of the ban on kambala, the popular buffalo racing sport. The move has received support from popular Kannada film actors, Kannada activists and politicians cutting across party lines, with many of them agitating for kambala under the rubric of Kannada pride. Several mass protests have been planned in the coming days, and some politicians have also called for a Karnataka bandh.
Some time after the Supreme Court’s order on May 7, 2014, that bulls cannot be used as performing animals—a ruling that also proscribed jallikattu and bullock cart races—the Department of Animal Husbandry of Karnataka sent out a directive to the Deputy Commissioners of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada. According to this directive, all events relating to kambala were to be stopped immediately. Coming as it did sometime towards the end of 2014 when local kambala committees were gearing up to host these festivities in all their splendour, it severely affected the social calendar of the region.
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