慢速英语 | 印度蜜蜂保护农作物免受野生大象破环
People in Mayilattumpara, a village in southwest India, could not sleep at night.
印度东南部马伊拉图帕拉小镇的人们晚上都不能入睡。
Because of habitat loss, wild elephants would enter their village to look for food, destroying crops and farmland.
由于栖息地的减少，野生大象会进入村庄寻找食物，破坏庄稼和农场。
The villagers tried to keep the wild elephants out with electric fences, deep holes and plants believed to keep the animals away.They even tried beating drums.Nothing worked!
村民曾试过使用电栅栏、深坑和认为可以隔离动物的植物阻拦野生大象。他们甚至试过敲鼓。但是都不管用。
The repeated destruction of crops led some villagers to stop farming.But the situation turned around last year.
农作物不断受到破坏使得一些村民不再种庄稼。但去年情况发生了变化。
That is because residents have finally found what keeps the elephants away: honey bees.
因为村民们最终发现了可以阻拦大象的方法：蜜蜂。
Elephants, it turns out, are afraid of loudly buzzing bees and their stings.
据证明，大象害怕嗡嗡作响的蜜蜂和它们的刺。
A wire fence holding beehives now stretches along the border of the village.When elephants try to pass the 2.5 kilometer wire fence, angry bees swarm out and the elephants quickly flee, people in the village say.
布满蜂房的线网现在围扎在村庄周围。当大象想要越过这2.5千米长的线栅栏时，生气的蜜蜂就会倾巢而出，大象就会很快逃走，村里的人们说道。
Protected by the bees, farmers have returned to growing their crops.Some even started to cultivate honey.
在蜜蜂的保护下，农民开始重新种植庄稼。一些人甚至开始采蜂蜜。
V.S. Roy works for the federal government’s Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA).
罗伊就职于联邦政府的农业科技管理部门。
He said the idea for the fence came from the work of an Oxford university researcher, Lucy King.In 2008, King successfully tested whether honeybees would keep elephants away from areas in Kenya.Researchers in Tanzania had the same success.
他说，栅栏的想法来自牛津大学的研究者露西·金。2008年，金成功测试蜜蜂能否阻挡肯尼亚地区的大象。坦桑尼亚研究者也同样取得了成功。
Roy wondered, "If it could (work) in the African forest, why couldn’t it in the Kerala forest?"So, he worked with the farmer’s association in Mayilattumpara to start the experiment.
罗伊想：“如果这个方法在非洲森林能起作用，为什么不能在客拉拉省的森林中试一下呢？”所以他和马伊拉图帕拉的农民合作，开始了这个实验。
The fence cost about $8,000 with funding from the ATMA.
这个栅栏耗资8000美元，由联邦政府的农业科技管理部门出资。
JohnyKochery has 9 hectares of farmland in the village.He said setting up the fence and beehives was not easy. The farmers needed to find the most effective fence and hive system. They also needed to learn how to replace diseased colonies, care for the bees and deal with the cost of keeping up the system.
约翰尼·考克尔在村子里有9公顷的农田。他说设立栅栏和蜂巢并不简单。农民需要发现最有效的栅栏和蜂巢系统。他们还需要学会如何替换生病的蜂群，照顾蜜蜂，承担养殖蜂群的费用。
Kochery said that last season the farmers were not able to make a profit.But this year they hope to have a big harvest.
考克尔说，上季度农民没能获得收益。但今年，他们希望能获得大丰收。
The results of this experiment have encouraged farmers from other areas to try similar projects.The government also has been working to resolve conflict between humans and elephants by reducing deforestation and improving the elephants’ natural habitat.
这个实验的结果鼓励其他地区的农民尝试相似的项目。政府也在解决人类和大象之间的冲突。通过减少土地沙漠化和改善大象自然栖息地的方式。
E.A Jayson is a scientist with the Kerala Forest Research Institute.He said the fencing seems to keep the elephant away.But there are now new problems to solve.
杰森是客拉拉省森林研究所的科学家。他说，栅栏似乎可以阻挡大象。但是现在还有新问题等待解决。
We have met with incidences of theft of beehive boxes, Jayson said.
“我们现在偶尔会遇到偷蜂巢的贼，”杰森说道。
I’m Mario Ritter.
马里奥·里特为您播报。