Mangaluru : A new team of office-bearers for the District Kambala Samiti set to assume office at a special general meeting on Sunday for the preparations to organise Kambala events during this year’s season, said Rajeev Shetty.

The meeting to be held at Swarna Mandira in Moodbidri near here from 2 p.m., the meeting will witness installation of the new team headed by P.R. Shetty as president, Rajeev Shetty Yedthur as general secretary, and outgoing president Barkur Shantharam Shetty as honorary president, he said.

Speaking in a press meet here Rajeev Shetty told reporters on Friday that the meeting will be attended by Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, former Minister K. Abhayachandra Jain, MLA Umanath Kotian, and others. Among others, the meeting will also decide the calender for the upcoming Kambala season, he said. The samithi oversees Kambala events in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kasargod districts.

Mr. Shetty said that even before animal rights organisations began campaign against Kambala, the samiti had started taking steps to hold it in an organised manner and to reduce violence against buffalo bulls. The samiti has drafted its own code for Kambalas listing out do’s and don’ts for the organisers, owners and runners, he said. Despite the government permitting Kambala through an amendment to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, by an Act of 2018, Mr. Shetty said PETA is learnt to have again approached courts challenging the Act. The allegations made by the organisation are false and frivolous and are intended to curb Kambala, which is a part and parcel of the coastal Karnataka’s tradition. The allegations appear to be figment of imagination by animal rights organisations as they do not understand the local traditions as well as how owners of buffalo bulls treat the animals as members of their own family, he added.

Kambala organiser Sitharam Shetty said the samiti would strictly follow the amendment Act and rules made thereunder by the government while permitting Kambala, bulls race and bullock cart race.

These events are permitted by an amendment to Section 3 of the Principal Act, subject to conditions that no unnecessary pain or suffering is caused to animals, he said. The government has also declared that these events are part and parcel of the local tradition, he added.