Lion ‘Akbar’ with lioness ‘Sita’ at safari park. Hindu outfit VHP moves Calcutta high court

Calcutta High Court will hear a plea on Tuesday by the Bengal wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) which has challenged the West Bengal forest department’s move to allegedly keep a lion named ‘Akbar’ with a lioness named ‘Sita’ in the same enclosure at Siliguri’s Safari park.

Calcutta high court will hear a bizarre plea on Tuesday by the Bengal wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) which has challenged the West Bengal forest department’s move to allegedly keep a lion named ‘Akbar’ with a lioness named ‘Sita’ in the same enclosure at Siliguri’s Safari park. The plea was mentioned before a bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya on February 16, 2024, reported Live Law. The state’s forest authorities and the safari park director have been made parties to the case.

As per the report, the lion and the lioness were recently brought in from Sepahijala Zoological Park in Tripura. Forest department officials claim that they didn’t rename the creatures. They claimed the names had been given before the creatures arrived at the safari park.

The names- Akbar and Sita have caused controversy. Akbar was a Muslim king of the Mughal Empire in India while Sita, according to the Hindu epic Ramayana, is known as the wife of Lord Rama, one of the principal avatars of the god Vishnu. Sita is revered as the epitome of wifely virtue, purity, and devotion and often depicted as the ideal wife, undergoing various trials and tribulations with grace and steadfastness.

The VHP has alleged that the creatures were named by the state’s forest department. In their plea, they have claimed that housing ‘Sita’ with ‘Akbar’ in the safari park, would be an insult to the Hindu religion and hurt the sentiments of the Hindus. They have requested that the name of the lioness be changed.

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