Bengaluru: Banners announcing the second edition of Bengaluru’s Kambala race have been put up. The field at Palace Grounds is ready for the traditional buffalo race, but the animals are absent. The inaugural event to mark the start of the Kambala season in Bengaluru was scheduled for this weekend, but the Karnataka High Court stopped it and scheduled another hearing on the matter for 5 November.
Kambala is intrinsic to the farming community in coastal Karnataka. Come November, groups of men, young and old, can be seen training their buffaloes as they race each other along the slush tracks.
But like Tamil Nadu’s Jalikattu, Karnataka’s slush track bull race is caught in a clash of culture versus cattle rights.
Animal rights groups such as PETA are up in arms against the Karnataka government’s decision to expand Kambala’s reach to Bengaluru and other parts of the state beyond coastal Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts. PETA moved the Karnataka High Court to halt the 26 October event in Bengaluru on the grounds that the cultural race is being marketed as a commercial event.
“The festival was conducted purely for commercial and entertainment reasons and is therefore evidently an exploitation of the limited permission to conduct buffalo races in certain parts of the state,” PETA said in its petition to the Karnataka High Court.
Last year’s Kambala race at Palace Grounds was a roaring success: seven-eight lakh attendees, 125 food stalls, more than 100 pairs of prized buffalos, and 2,000 VIP seating arrangements. The audience lined up along the slush tracks, with collective cries of “Bengaluru Kambala, Namma Kambala”. It offered citizens – residents and migrants from other parts of India – a glimpse of coastal Karnataka’s most celebrated race.
For PETA, the cancellation of Saturday’s race is a small victory.
“But this is not about tradition. Holding the festival in Bengaluru is not for traditional purposes but only for commercial purposes. The animals are brought away from their natural environment in coastal Karnataka. The bigger the event, the greater the extent of cruelty against buffaloes. This is why we are fighting against the decision to hold the festival in a big city,” Arunima Kedia, Lead Legal Counsel at PETA told ThePrint.
‘A commercial celebration’
For the Karnataka government, it was a matter of pride to bring the traditional folk sport to Bengaluru. First mooted by Puttur MLA Ashok Kumar Rai, convenor of the Bengaluru Kambala Committee in 2023, it was a marked departure from convention.
“The idea behind organising Kambala in Bengaluru is to popularise the festival among the urban population and promote it for breed conservation of the Indian buffalo,” Rai said while addressing the festival’s inauguration last year.
For many who were present at the festival last year, the visuals gave them a déjà vu from the popular 2022 Kannada film Kantara starring Rishab Shetty. The film has many scenes deeply rooted in the culture of coastal Karnataka.
“I saw him (Shetty) competing in Kambala in the movie. I have always heard about race but this was the first time I was able to witness it in person, that too in Bengaluru,” said Sai Kiran, a 27-year-old app developer in the city.
On the last day of the event in 2023, the two buffaloes that the actor raced in the movie were seen on the tracks.
“Due to the success of the movie, many people are interested in learning more about the folk sport,” Rai added.
Even in coastal Karnataka, Kambala has evolved into a commercial celebration of sorts. Earlier, winners were given fruits and vegetables as prizes. Now, they are honoured with gold and cash prizes.
Also read: ‘Toxic masculinity’ vs ‘tradition’ — Why Tamil Nadu’s bull-taming sport jallikattu is controversial
The 2023 Bengaluru Kambala
PETA’s investigation into Bengaluru’s first Kambala revealed alleged gross violations in how the participant buffaloes were managed.
It began with the transportation of the animals. According to PETA, they were brought to Bengaluru from cities such as Udupi and Mangaluru via trucks – a long and arduous journey of more than 350 kilometres. The animals were then exposed to bright lights, loud noises and huge crowds.
They were slapped in the face, tethered in makeshift shelters and hit with wooden sticks during the race, PETA claimed in its petition to the Karnataka HC.
Megaphones at the event proudly announced that the race was held on a 155-metre track, which is reportedly the longest in the history of buffalo races. However, PETA observed that the buffaloes were frothing at the mouth and gasping for air toward the end. “They are not physiologically suited to running such lengths,” Kedia said.
Organisers of Bengaluru’s 2023 Kambala event, however, refute claims of ill-treatment of buffaloes. “There is no cruelty, as alleged by PETA. Buffaloes are taken care of really well, they are fed the best of food, a lot of money is spent on them and they are kept in good condition,” said Manjunath Kanyadi, a member of the state-constituted Bengaluru Kambala Committee.
Calling PETA’s opposition misplaced, Kanyadi said that the Kambala festival will be held in Bengaluru in February 2025.
“It is a matter of prestige for Karnataka; it will definitely be held in Bengaluru.”
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)