'Blasphemy': Akbar the lion can't live with Sita the lioness, Hindus tells Bengal court

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an Indian Hindu nationalist group, has moved a court in West Bengal to stop two big cats — a lioness named Sita, christened after Hindi deity Rama's consort and a lion called Akbar, dubbed after the third Mughal emperor, Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, from sharing the same zoo enclosure, the Guardian reported.

The plea includes a request to change the name of Akbar the lion.

"Sita cannot stay with the Mughal emperor Akbar; such an act amounts to blasphemy and is a direct assault on the religious beliefs of all Hindus," said VHP official Anup Mondal on Sunday.

Sita is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic, Ramayana and is the consort of Rama, according to Hindus.

Akbar the Lion was named after the 16th-century Mughal emperor who extended Muslim rule over much of the Indian subcontinent, a time Hindu nationalist groups consider to have been a period of slavery.

The world's most populous nation has seen an increase in religious intolerance, according to critics, since the Hindu nationalist administration led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014.

Modi is predicted to win a third term in office through general elections, which are anticipated to take place in April.

Mondal said the lion called Akbar had previously been named after the Hindu deity Rama when he was in the neighbouring state of Tripura, which Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party controls.

However, his name was changed when the lion was sent to West Bengal, a region ruled by the opposition Trinamool Congress party. The VHP petition demands that the naming of zoo animals with religious names be prohibited.

A West Bengal forest department official, Dipak Kumar Mandal, said "The lion and the lioness are now kept separately."

The case is scheduled for a hearing on February 20.