Jalpaiguri (Bengal): The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has moved the circuit bench of the Kolkata high court against the fact that one of two lions brought to the state from Tripura was named ‘Sita.’Two lions were brought from Tripura’s Sepahijala Zoological Park to the Bengal Safari Park in Siliguri on February 12.One of the lions was named ‘Akbar’ and the other ‘Sita’. Akbar is a seven-year-old and Sita is six.The Hindutva group is now up in arms over the fact that Akbar’s companion is Sita. While Akbar is also the name of a Mughal emperor, Sita is a character in the epic Ramayan and is revered as a Hindu deity.While reports had said that the forest authorities would be requesting chief minister Mamata Banerjee to name the lions, it is not clear if she was indeed the one to name them Akbar and Sita.On February 16, the local chapter of the VHP moved the Jalpaiguri circuit bench against the state government with a petition over the naming and demanding that Sita’s name be changed.VHP district chief Dulal Chandra Ray told The Wire 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.Subhankar Dutta, who is counsel for the VHP, said the government documents identified the two lions as “male and female Panthera lions”.“After they arrived here, they were named Akbar and Sita. So we have asked that the latter be changed. We have made the state zoo authorities and the Bengal Safari Park director parties to the case,” Dutta said.The case will be heard on February 20.No forest department official has agreed to comment on the issue.Translated from the Bengali original by Soumashree Sarkar.
