NATURAL VEGETATION OF INDIA//TYPE OF NATURAL VEGETATION

Welcome to GEOGRAPHIA. Today we are going to provide important Natural Vegetation of India .Natural Vegetation  is a very important topic in Indian Geography. In every exam, there are questions asked from this topic. But students find difficulty in remembering the whole passes. To help students, we are providing you This topic with pdf.

 India is a land of great variety of natural vegetation. Himalayan heights are marked with temperate vegetation; the Western Ghats and the Andaman Nicobar Islands have tropical rainforests, the deltaic regions have tropical forests and mangroves; the desert and semi desert areas of Rajasthan are known for cacti, a wide variety of bushes and thorny vegetation. Depending upon the variations in the climate and the soil, the vegetation of India changes from one region to another. Our country India is one of the twelve mega biodiversity countries of the world. With about 47,000 plant species India occupies tenth place in the world and fourth in Asia in plant diversity. There are about 15,000 flowering plants in India which account for 6 per cent in the world’s total number of flowering plants. The country has many non-flowering plants such as ferns, algae and fungi.

TYPE OF NATURAL VEGETATION IN INDIA

Tropical Evergreen and Semi Evergreen Forests

• LOCATION: These forests are found in the western slope of the Western Ghats, hills of the northeastern region and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• TEMPERATURE AND RAINFALL: They are found in warm and humid areas with an annual precipitation of over 200 cm and mean annual temperature above 22 degree 
• FEATURES: 

1)Tropical evergreen forests are well stratified, with layers closer to the ground and are covered with shrubs and creepers, with short structured trees followed by a tall variety of trees. 

2)trees reach great heights up to 60 m or above. There is no definite time for trees to shed their leaves, flowering and fruition.

3) Species found in these forests include rosewood, mahogany, aini, ebony, etc.

The semi evergreen forests are found in the less rainy parts of these regions. Such forests have a mixture of evergreen and moist deciduous trees. The under growing climbers provide an evergreen character to these forests. 

4) Main species are white cedar, hollock and kail.

Tropical Deciduous Forests

• LOCATION : These are the most widespread forests in India. 
• TEMPERATURE AND RAINFALL: They are also called the monsoon forests. They spread over regions which receive rainfall between 70-200cm. 
• On the basis of the availability of water, these forests are further divided into moist and dry deciduous.
• The Moist deciduous forests:
  • Theseare more pronounced in the regions which record rainfall between 100-200cm.
  • These forests are found in the northeastern states along the foothills of Himalayas, eastern slopes of the Western Ghats and Orissa.
  • Teak, sal, shisham, hurra, mahua, amla, semul, kusum, and sandalwood etc. are the main species of these forests.
• Dry deciduous forest:
  • Thiscovers vast areas of the country, where rainfall ranges between 70 -100 cm. On the wetter margins, it has a transition to the moist deciduous, while on the drier margins to thorn forests.
  • These forests are found in rainier areas of the Peninsula and the plains of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
  • In the higher rainfall regions of the Peninsular plateau and the northern Indian plain, these forests have a parkland landscape with open stretches in which teak and other trees interspersed with patches of grass are common.
  • As the dry season begins, the trees shed their leaves completely and the forest appears like a vast grassland with naked trees all around.
  • Tendu, palas, amaltas, bel, khair, axlewood, etc. are the common trees of these forests.
  • In the western and southern part of Rajasthan, vegetation cover is very scanty due to low rainfall and overgrazing.

 Tropical Thorn Forests

• Tropical thorn forests occur in the areas which receive rainfall less than 50 cm.
• These consist of a variety of grasses and shrubs.
• It includes semi-arid areas of south west Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
• In these forests, plants remain leafless for most part of the year and give an expression of scrub vegetation.
• Important species found are babool, ber, and wild date palm, khair, neem, khejri, palas, etc. Tussocky grass grows upto a height of 2 m as the undergrowth.

 Montane Forests

• In mountainous areas, the decrease in temperature with increasing altitude leads to a corresponding change in natural vegetation. Mountain forests can be classified into two types, the northern mountain forests and the southern mountain forests.
• The Northern Mountain Forests: The Himalayan ranges show a succession of vegetation from the tropical to the tundra, which change in with the altitude.
  • Deciduous forests are found in the foothills of the Himalayas.
  • It is succeeded by the wet temperate type of forests between an altitude of 1,000-2,000 m.
  • In the higher hill ranges of northeastern India, hilly areas of West Bengal and Uttaranchal, evergreen broadleaf trees such as oak and chestnut are predominant.
  • Between 1,500-1,750 m, pine forests are also well-developed in this zone, with Chir Pine as a very useful commercial tree.
  • Deodar, a highly valued endemic species grows mainly in the western part of the Himalayan range. Deodar is a durable wood mainly used in construction activity. Similarly, the chinar and the walnut, which sustain the famous Kashmir handicrafts, belong to this zone.
  • Blue pine and spruce appear at altitudes of 2,225-3,048 m. At many places in this zone, temperate grasslands are also found.
  • But in the higher reaches there is a transition to Alpine forests and pastures. Silver firs, junipers, pines, birch and rhododendrons, etc. occur between 3,000-4,000 m. However, these pastures are used extensively for transhumance by tribes like the Gujjars, the Bakarwals, the Bhotiyas and the Gaddis.
  • The southern slopes of the Himalayas carry a thicker vegetation cover because of relatively higher precipitation than the drier north-facing slopes.
  • At higher altitudes, mosses and lichens form part of the tundra vegetation.
• The southern mountain forests: Itincludes the forests found in three distinct areas of Peninsular India viz; the Western Ghats, the Vidhya and the Nilgiris. As they are closer to the tropics, and only 1,500 m above the sea level, vegetation is temperate in the higher regions, and subtropical on the lower regions of the Western Ghats, especially in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The temperate forests are called Sholas in the Nilgiris, Anaimalai and Palani hills. Some of the other trees of this forest of economic significance include, magnolia, laurel, cinchona and wattle. Such forests are also found in the Satpura and the Maikal ranges.

Littoral and Swamp Forests

• India has a rich variety of wetland habitats. About 70 percent of this comprises areas under paddy cultivation. The total area of wetland is 3.9 million hectares. Two sites — Chilika Lake (Orissa) and Keoladeo National Park (Bharatpur) are protected as water-fowl habitats under the Convention of Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention).
• The country’s wetlands have been grouped into eight categories, viz.
  • the reservoirs of the Deccan Plateau in the south together with the lagoons and other wetlands of the southern west coast;
  • the vast saline expanses of Rajasthan, Gujarat and the Gulf of Kachchh;
  • freshwater lakes and reservoirs from Gujarat eastwards through Rajasthan (Keoladeo National Park) and Madhya Pradesh;
  • the delta wetlands and lagoons of India’s east coast (Chilika Lake);
  • the freshwater marshes of the Gangetic Plain;
  • the floodplains of the Brahmaputra; the marshes and swamps in the hills of northeast India and the Himalayan foothills;
  • the lakes and rivers of the montane region of Kashmir and Ladakh; and
  • the mangrove forest and other wetlands of the island arcs of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Mangroves grow along the coasts in the salt marshes, tidal creeks, mud flats and estuaries. They consist of a number of salt-tolerant species of plants. Crisscrossed by creeks of stagnant water and tidal flows, these forests give shelter to a wide variety of birds.
• In India, the mangrove forests spread over 6,740 sq. km which is 7 percent of the world’s mangrove forests. They are highly developed in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Sundarbans of West Bengal. Other areas of significance are the Mahanadi, the Godavari and the Krishna deltas. These forests too, are being encroached upon, and hence, need conservation.

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