Lioness ‘Sita’ can’t be with Lion ‘Akbar’: Bengal VHP moves court
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New Delhi: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has moved the Calcutta High Court challenging the West Bengal forest department's move to allegedly keep a lion named 'Akbar' alongside a lioness named 'Sita' in the same enclosure at Siliguri's Safari Park, reported LiveLaw.
The Bengal wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad approached the Calcutta High Court's circuit bench in Jalpaiguri on February 16. The matter will be heard on February 20 (Tuesday).
Two lions one named ‘Akbar’ and the other, ‘Sita’, were brought from Tripura’s Sepahijala Zoological Park to the Bengal Safari Park in Siliguri on February 12. While Akbar is a seven-year-old, Sita is six.
The Hindutva outfit is irked by the fact that Akbar’s companion is Sita. Akbar was a Mughal emperor and Sita is a character in Valmiki's 'Ramayan' and is revered as a Hindu deity.
Reacting to the controversy, the forest department said the lions were recently shifted from the Sepahijala Zoological Park in Tripura and were not renamed upon arrival at the Safari Park on February 13.
VHP has contended that the state's forest department assigned the names to the lions, and pairing 'Sita' with 'Akbar' was deemed disrespectful to Hindus, reported LiveLaw. The outfit has demanded a change in the name of the lioness.
The Wire quoted the VHP district chief Dulal Chandra Ray as saying that the naming has come as an attack on the Hindu religion.
“The lioness which was brought to the Bengal Safari Park has been named Sita. This has hurt the Hindu religion. We are strongly opposed to such a name and have thus come to the court to seek recourse,” Ray said.
