Farmers take part in traditional cattle race in Kerala village

PALAKKAD - Cattle-racing in Chidali village of Kerala’s Palakkad district attracted farmers from different parts of the state on Friday.

The cattle race Club as a part of the harvesting season organizes the race during the last days of Onam.

“Cattle race is a festival of farmers and agriculture festival, too. This is useful to conduct on the Onam season in Kerela. In Palakkad this festival is a unique one, which is conducting in the other parts of Kerela,” said P. K. Narayan, Secretary of the Cattle Race Club of India.

A special 100 metres track, filled with water and soft mud, was artificially created for the race.

Two pairs of cattle run simultaneously on a watery track with their owners.

The participating cattle were divided into three categories for the races, namely, bullock-bullock, bullock-buffalo, and buffalo- buffalo.

“This year, we are conducting the race in three different categories, that is, juniors, sub-juniors and senior. And also, we have three categories of races, that is bullock-bullock, buffalo-buffalo and bullock-buffalo, and this year we have more than 300 participants altogether with the buffalo and oxen,” said Anjo, an organiser of the cattle race.

The specialty of the cattle race is that the cattle pair has to cross the 100-meters-long track in the time span of seven seconds. By Jehovah G (ANI)