The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has moved the Circuit Bench of Calcutta High Court in Jalpaiguri district against a lioness named after Goddess Sita and male lion named after Mughal emperor Akbar at the North Bengal Wild Animals Park in Siliguri.
According to reports, the two big cats were brought to the Siliguri zoo from Tripura’s Sepahijala Zoo along with eight other animals, as part of an animal exchange programme on February 12.
In the writ petition, which was presented on Friday, the VHP has claimed that such names for the cat family were “irrational”, “illogical” and “tantamount to blasphemy”.
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The hearing in the case is scheduled to be held on February 20 in the court of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya.
The petition filed by the VHP stated: “On February 8, 2024, Sepahijala Zoological Park handed over one male lion and a lioness along with eight other animals to North Bengal Wildlife Animals Park, Siliguri for the said animal exchange programme… The Bengal Safari Park has named the female lion as ‘Sita’. By using the name of ‘Sita’ for a lioness, the respondent authority is hurting religious sentiments of Sanatan Dharma…”
“Such naming of a cat family after a religious deity, namely Sita, is irrational, illogical…The outrageous nomenclature has angered petitioners’ religious sentiments. That it is stated by the petitioner that such naming of animals after the name of religious deities is very much sacrilegious and tantamount to blasphemy…” the petition further stated.
According to VHP, its representatives had met state forest officials multiple times and even protested against the names. “They have named a lioness as Sita and the lion as Akbar. How can this be? Does this not hurt our religious sentiments? We went from one office of the forest department to another. No one paid heed to us, so we had to move court,” said VHP’s Jalpaiguri unit chief Dulal Chandra Roy.
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“In light of the urgency of the situation, the VHP by way of a writ petition has urged the court to take immediate action, including changing the lioness’s name to a non-religious one and directing authorities to refrain from using religious names for animals in zoological parks. We seek justice and respect for religious sentiments, and stern action against all those involved in such naming of the species,” VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said in a press statement.
“The VHP first wrote to the state authorities regarding the issue. Thereafter, we filed the petition before the Calcutta High Court Circuit Bench in Jalpaiguri. We feel naming animals after Hindu gods and goddesses has hurt religious feelings and sentiments. The matter was mentioned on February 16 and will be heard on February 20,” advocate Subhankar Dutta, who’s representing the VHP, told the newspaper over phone from Siliguri.
Speaking to The Indian Express over phone on Saturday, West Bengal forest minister and TMC MLA Birbaha Hansda said the animals were given the names by Tripura zoo. She also hit out at the VHP and accused them of “dirty politics”.
“What they are doing is dirty politics. We didn’t name the animals which came to us from Tripura Zoo. It is absolutely wrong to say that we have given the names. It is our Chief minister who will formally give names to the animals. The animals came from a zoo in Tripura and maybe they have given some names there.”
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Akbar is seven years and eight months old, while Sita is five years and six months old, officials said, adding that the two animals are currently put in separate enclosures.
It will take at least two months for the pair to be put in a display area of the safari together. An area of 20 hectares has been set aside for the big cats in the 297-hectare park, according to sources.
An official from Sepahijala Zoo and Wildlife Sanctuary in Tripura said, “A pair of lions was sent to the North Bengal Wildlife Park as part of an animal exchange programme. We had sent four black bucks, two lions, two spectacled monkeys and two leopard cats in exchange for two tigers, golden pheasants, silver pheasants and Hill Maynas. We had sent a lion and a lioness named Ram and Sita respectively from Sepahijala. We are not aware of what happened at the destination.”
The official further said that any animal is identified with a code recognizable in all zoos and sanctuaries of the country. The code is the only authentic identification for the animals, and the official records of lions sent from Tripura were named Ram and Sita along with their identification codes.
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The Sepahijala Zoo and Wildlife Sanctuary, the oldest and the largest zoo and sanctuary of Tripura, has had an animal exchange programme for the first time in the last 10 years this year.
With inputs from Debraj Deb, Tripura
