拯救生命本身-环宇时空-休闲英语-轻松英语-洪恩在线

Saving Life Itself

Putting all considerations of beauty, biodiversity and compassion aside for a moment, consider this: Why is it so important to save the tiger?

In India, saving the tiger means saving life itself, explains P. K. Sen, director of Project Tiger in New Delhi.

Since India is primarily rural, it is heavily dependent on the 25 river systems that crisscross this vast country. The rivers - which are replenished[1] by the monsoon season - supply irrigation, power and drinking water. Along the rivers is some of the best tiger habitat on the subcontinent, he says, so saving that habitat not only helps the tiger, it helps mankind.

注释：

1．replenish：

补充，再添足。比如爱go shopping的女孩子经常把这句话挂在口头：I must replenish my wardrobe. 我必须购置新衣了。另外，它还能表示“补偿，替代”，比如：Now again there is the peaceful night to replenish the weariness of air. 平静的夜晚再次取代了萎靡不振的空气。

"The tiger is a species that represents the entire ecosystem. If it cannot survive, that is because the entire ecosystem is suffering," he says.

And if that habitat is degraded, the trees cannot hold down the soil.

"Our country is fully dependent on the monsoon. If the trees are cut, then when the monsoon comes, you shall have heavy erosion of the soil, which will choke the riverbeds with silt, which will result in widespread floods," he says.

Saving the tiger means much more than keeping one animal off the list of extinct species. Each link in the chain of biodiversity is crucial, and each link lost affects others. So saving the tiger means saving ourselves.

拯救生命本身

让我们暂且把虎之雄美，生命多样性以及对动物的怜悯通通抛开，先思考这个问题：挽救虎类为何如此重要？

在印度，挽救老虎意味着拯救生命本身，新德里保护老虎项目组主任P. K. Sen如此说。

印度基本上以农业为主，因而极为依赖纵横于这片广阔国度的25条河系。这些河流——水量在每年的雨季得到补充——为印度提供了水能以及大量的灌溉和饮用水。河流沿岸是次大陆中老虎的最佳栖息地，他说，所以，保护这片栖息地不仅帮助了老虎，还帮助了人类自身。

他还说，“虎是整个生态系统最具代表性的物种。如果它都无法生存下去，那就说明整个生态系统受到了严重破坏。”

如果任由这片老虎栖息地退化下去，树木就根本无法保持土壤。

“我们国家完全依赖季风。如果树木遭到砍伐，雨季来临之时，土壤会受到严重侵蚀，河床也会因此淤积大量泥沙，洪水也因此将倾然而至，”他说。

抢救老虎不仅仅意味着使某种动物免上已灭绝动物名单。生物多样性中每一个环节都至关重要，迁一发而动全身。因而挽救老虎也就是挽救我们自己。