The Bengal Safari Park has received approval from the central zoo authority to introduce a lion safari.

“We have received the necessary approval from the central zoo authority for a lion safari at the safari park in Siliguri. We will get two lions from Tripura zoological park next month,” Sourav Choudhury, the member secretary of the West Bengal zoo authority, told newsmen in the presence of Birbaha Hansda, the minister of state for the Bengal forest department, at the safari park on Sunday.

The central zoo authority, a statutory body under the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change, oversees zoos across the country.

According to the forest official, the lions may reach between January 7 and 23. They will be allowed to get acclimatised to the park and then released into the open enclosure for public viewing.

The only open-air zoological park of the region, also known as North Bengal Wild Animal Park, is spread over 297 hectares on the fringes of the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary. The park has royal Bengal tigers, one-horn rhinos, gharials and crocodiles, leopards and Asiatic black bear in separate enclosures. It also has an open-air aviary with different species of avian population and a nature interpretation centre.

The minister on Sunday evening released two gibbons at the park.

The forest official said the park authority is also getting a good response from wildlife enthusiasts and visitors at the park with a Rs 5 crore revenue till November in the current fiscal.

“We are expecting the amount to touch Rs 7 crore by the end of the current financial year,” he said.

The official sources said the park authority will keep the park open for seven days till March 15.

The park authority is planning to release two cubs of Asiatic black bear cubs and one tiger cub into the open enclosure for public viewing next month.