VHP moves court after lioness 'Sita' is housed with lion 'Akbar' at Bengal safari

The Bengal wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has moved the Calcutta High Court's Circuit Bench, challenging the forest department's decision to allegedly house a lioness named "Sita" and a lion named "Akbar" in the same enclosure at Siliguri's Bengal Safari park.

Reports suggest that the lion and the lioness were recently brought in from a zoo in Tripura on February 13. The forest department authorities claim that they didn’t rename the lions. They further said that the lions were already named "Sita" and "Akbar" before they arrived at the safari park.

The VHP's north Bengal unit filed the petition on February 16 and the matter is likely to be heard on February 20 before a single bench of the court, petitioner's advocate on record Subhankar Dutta told PTI.    

He said the petitioner has prayed that the name of the lioness be changed as such naming of an animal may hurt religious sentiments.    

It was also urged that no animal in any zoological park be named after gods and goddesses of any religion in future, Dutta said.    

The parishad's north Bengal unit said it learnt from media reports that a lion and lioness with markings as IL26 and IL27, respectively, arrived at the Bengali Safari Park as part of an animal exchange programme and that the lioness was named "Sita".    

(With inputs from PTI)