The Bengal wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has moved to Calcutta High Court challenging the forest department's decision to keep a lion named 'Akbar' with a lioness named 'Sita' at the Siliguri's Safari Park.
According to a report in LiveLaw, a plea was filed before the high court's Circuit Bench at Jalpaiguri on Friday and listed for hearing on Tuesday.
The plea, pertaining to the lioness in the North Bengal Wild Animals Park at Siliguri, said that the act of naming the lioness after a religious deity hurts religious sentiments.
According to a report in Bar and Bench, the petition states, "Vishwa Hindu Parishad has with deep anguish observed that a species of cat family has been named after the name of "SITA" the consort of Lord Rama and she is sacred deity to all Hindus across the world. Such act amounts to blasphemy and is a direct assault on the religious belief of all Hindus."
The VHP has claimed that the lions have been named by the State's forest department and added that housing 'Sita' with 'Akbar' would be an insult to the Hindu religion.
However, as per reports, the pair of lions have been brought from Sepahijala Zoological Park in Tripura. The forest department officials claimed that the lions were renamed before they arrived to the Bengal Safari Park this month.
The petitioner has urged that action should be taken to change the name of the lioness from "Sita" to any other common proper name and initiate an action to rename the animal with a name that is not connected to the Hindu religion.
Akbar was the third emperor of the Mughal dynasty in the sixteenth century, while Sita, considered a deity in the Hindu Religion, is the wife of Ram and finds mention in Valmiki's Ramayana.