The last of the pro-Jallikattu demonstrators, about 50 of them, dispersed today bringing down the curtains on an event that had held the city to ransom for over a week.
The demonstration that started out with several thousands participating spontaneously ended with the last of about 50 demonstrators leaving the beach in the evening after making a token statement.
Talking to an Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, they urged that the law allowing conduct of Jallikattu enacted on Monday should get Presidential approval; cases filed, if any, against demonstrators who had not indulged in violence yesterday should be dropped; and the news that those holding out on the beach till today had dispersed peacefully be publicised.
At the peak of the demonstration that began last week, lakhs turned out across the state with the Marina beach becoming the hub of an unprecedented gathering of thousands of youngsters and families coming out in support of Jallikattu.
The Supreme Court had banned the sport in 2014 under provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960.
The protests state-wide resulted in the Tamil Nadu government promulgating an ordinance last weekend and holding a special session of the Assembly on Monday to enact a law to allow the sport.
Even as the Assembly session was on, violence broke out across the state as police tried to disperse the agitators. Life in Chennai came to halt as miscreants indulged in arson and confronting the police. Only by evening an uneasy calm descended on the city. A few hundred demonstrators held out on the beach and today it was a haggard bunch of youngsters, including half a dozen women, irritable and squabbling among themselves as they addressed the media before dispersing.