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KOLKATA: The Kolkata Excessive Court docket on Thursday requested the state authorities to alter the identify of lion ‘Akbar’ and lioness ‘Sita’, saved in the identical enclosure at Bengal Safari Park in Siliguri, after a petition by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) opposing the federal government’s choice to maintain the 2 animals collectively and demanding a change within the identify of lioness saying it was disrespectful to Hindus.
The courtroom requested the state authorities’s lawyer whether or not he would identify his personal pet after a Hindu God or a Muslim Prophet.
“Will you your self identify your personal pet after some Hindu God or Muslim Prophet? I believe, if any of us would have been the authority, none of us would have named then as Akbar and Sita. Can anybody of us consider naming an animal after Rabindranath Tagore?” stated Justice Saugata Bhattacharya of Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench.
Justice Bhattacharya additionally requested to alter the identify of lion Akbar on his personal although it was not demanded in VHP’s petition. “Sita is worshipped by a bigger part of this nation. I additionally oppose naming the lion after Akbar. He was an environment friendly, profitable and secular Mughal Emperor,” he noticed.
Whereas passing remark, Justice Bhattacharya stated he questioned whether or not an animal must be named after a god, or a mythological character or freedom fighters. “We’re not speaking concerning the names of the pet animals of an officer of the zoo division. However you’re a welfare and secular state and why must you draw an argument by naming a lion after Sita and Akbar,” he stated.
The state authorities instructed the courtroom that naming of the 2 lions was achieved by the Tripura zoo authorities in 2016 and 2018 earlier than their current switch to Bengal. “The problem over their names solely cropped up as soon as the lions arrived the Bengal Safari Park,” stated further advocate basic Debjyoti Choudhary.
Choudhary assured the courtroom that the lions can be given new names however urged to dismiss the VHP’s petition. The courtroom ordered the VHP’s plea be labeled as a public curiosity litigation (PIL) and checklist it earlier than the bench which hears PILs.
A number of animals had been exchanged underneath the Centre’s animal change programme together with the 2 lions. The Bengal Safari Park despatched a Royan Bengal Tiger, two Shila cubs to the north-eastern state Tripura’s Sepahijala Zoological Park in change of the lions underneath the aegis of this programme.
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