Vườn thú Ấn Độ đặt tên tôn kính cho 2 chú sư tử và cái kết

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The lions look bemused (ngạc nhiên) or even bored in photos but not unhappy. Sita and Akbar had been living together for years. Now in a captive-breeding program in India’s eastern state of West Bengal, they are as married as animals can be.

But many of the humans around them are upset. On Saturday, the authorities (chính quyền) suspended a high-ranking forestry official (quan chức lâm nghiệp cấp cao) who had overseen the animals for naming the lioness Sita, after a revered Hindu goddess, and her mate Akbar, after a medieval Muslim emperor.

Heightened sensitivities (độ nhạy cảm tăng cao) between Hindus and Muslims are playing a role in the animal-naming dispute. Since Jan. 22, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a vast temple to the god Ram in Ayodhya, members of Mr. Bansal’s V.H.P. organization have been celebrating (ăn mừng) it as their own victory. In 1992, they led a mob that destroyed a Mughal-era mosque (nhà thờ Hồi giáo) that had stood where the new temple was built.

Under pressure, the state government in Tripura, where the animals were named before being transferred to Bengal, decided to investigate (điều tra) how the names came about. Its officers soon found references to Akbar and Sita in records. The official suspended on Saturday, Prabin Lal Agrawal, had denied (từ chối) choosing the names.

source: nytimes,