Tripura Govt Suspends Chief Wildlife Warden Over Akbar-Sita Row: Report
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: The BJP-ruled Tripura state government on February 24 suspended its Chief Wildlife Warden Prabin Lal Agrawal for recording the names of a pair of lions as Akbar and Sita, as per a news report by the Times of India.
The move comes after the Kolkata high court asked why the pair had been named after Akbar and Sita to cause potential religious controversies, after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad filed a petition regarding this on February 16.
The Akbar-Sita row
The lion and lioness, named ‘Akbar’ and ‘Sita’ arrived at the North Bengal Wild Animals Park in Siliguri, West Bengal, from Tripura’s Sepahijala Zoo on February 12, as part of an animal exchange programme, per the Times of India news report.
Prabin Lal Agrawal, a 1994-batch Indian Forest Service officer, had recorded the name of the pair as Akbar and Sita in the dispatch register before sending them to West Bengal, per the report. Agrawal is Tripura’s Chief Wildlife Warden, one of the topmost designations in the state forest department. He is also the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife and Tourism).
On February 16, the local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chapter filed a petition – that later went as a public interest litigation to the Kolkata High Court – regarding the naming of the pair as Akbar and Sita. VHP district chief Dulal Chandra Ray had told The Wire that the naming came as an attack on the Hindu religion: Akbar is the name of a Mughal emperor, and Sita is a character in the Hindu epic Ramayan, also revered as a deity in the religion. The High Court, while hearing the case, said that the “controversy” could have been avoided. It also asked who had named the animals in such a way and caused the “controversy”.
Senior forest official suspended
Per the ToI news report, the Tripura government sought a clarification from Agrawal, and he denied having named the pair Akbar and Sita. However, an investigation revealed that “wildlife officials in Tripura” had given the names, per the news report.
On February 24, the state government – currently ruled by the BJP and its ally the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura – suspended Agrawal, per the report.
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