India has a great variety of vegetation due to unequal distribution of rainfall, temperature and seasonal variation. India’s vegetation can be divided into 5 main types and 16 sub types.
1. Moist Tropical Forests
a.Tropical Wet Evergreen
b.Tropical Semi-Evergreen
c.Tropical Moist Deciduous
d.Littoral and Swamp
2. Dry Tropical Forests
a. Tropical Dry Evergreen
b.Tropical Dry Deciduous
c.Tropical Thorn
3. Montane Sub-Tropical Forests
a.Sub Tropical Broad Leaved Hill
b. Sub Tropical Moist Pine
c.Sub Tropical Dry Evergreen
4. Montane Temperate Forests
a. Montane Wet Temperate
b.Himalayan Moist Temperate
c.Himalayan Dry Temperate
5. Alpine Forests
a.Sub Alpine
b.Moist Alpine Scrub
c.Dry Alpine Scrub
1. Moist Tropical Forests
b. Tropical Semi-Evergreen – These forests grow where the annual rainfall is 200-250 cm, mean annual temperature of 24°C -27°C .These forest are less dense than the tropical wet evergreen and is found in the lower slopes of the Eastern Himalayas, Western Coast, Assam , Odisha and Andamans. Aini,Simul, Gutel, Kadam,Thorny Bamboo, Rosewood and Mesua, White Cedar, Champa are some of the important species grown.
c. Tropical Moist Deciduous – They occur where the annual rainfall is 100-200 cm, mean annual temperature of 24°-27°C. These are very useful forest because they yield valuable timber and several other forest products. Found along the Western Ghat surrounding evergreen forest both on the Eastern and Western Slopes, a strip along the Shiwalik Range including terai and bhabar,Manipur,Mizoram, West Bengal, Hills of Eastern Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Chota Nagpur Plateau and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Sal, teak, lendi, kusum, mahua, kokko, jamun, white chuglam and amla are some of the important species.
d.
Littoral and Swamp Forests – Littoral forest
occur along the coast and Swamp forest are found in the deltas of
the Ganga, the Mahanadi, the Cauvery,
the Godavari and the Krishna. These forests survive and grow both in fresh as
well as brackish water. Important species are Sundri, screw pines, bhara,
amur,agar,canes and palms etc.
2. Dry Tropical Forests
a. Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests –These forest are found along the coast of Tamil Nadu where the annual rainfall is 100 cm mostly from the north-east monsoon winds in October –December, mean temperature of 28°C.The trees are short statured up to 12 meter high. Teak,tendu,bijasal,rosewood,amaltas palas,haldu,kasi,bijasal,commonbamboo, red sanders,sal etc are the important species.
b. Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests –These forests are found where the rainfall is 100-150 cm per annum, temperature of 28°C.They occur in a irregular strip of running north-south from the foot of the Himalayas to Kanniyakumari except in Rajasthan, Western Ghats and West Bengal. Important species are teak, axelwood, tendu, bijasal, rosewood, bel, lendi, sal etc.
c.
Tropical Thorn Forests - These forest grow where the rainfall is less than 75 cm, temperature
of 25°-30°C. The trees are 6 meter -10 meters maximum and are widely scattered.
Found in Rajasthan, South-Western Punjab, Western Haryana, Rann of Kutch,
Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Acacias,
Euphorbia, the Indian wild date are the common trees.
3. Montane Sub-Tropical Forests
a.Sub-tropical broad- leaved evergreen – These forests occur where the mean annual rainfall is 75-125 cm, average annual temperature is 18°-21°C and the average humidity is 80 percent. They are found in the Eastern Himalayas to the east of 88°E longitude at altitude varying from 1000 to 2000meters, higher parts of Western Ghats such as Mahabaleshwar, the summits of the Satpura and the Maikal Range, highlands of Bastar, and Mt. Abu of Aravalli Range. Climbers and epiphytes are common here.
b. Sub-Tropical Moist Pine Forests – These forests are found at altitudes varying from 1000-2000 meters and in the Western Himalayas between 73°E and 88°E longitudes, in some parts of Arunachal Pradesh,Manipur,Naga Hills and Khasi Hills of Meghalaya. Chil is the most dominant tree which form pure stands. It provides valuable timber for furniture, buildings and boxes.
c. Sub-Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests – They occur in areas of 50-100 cm average rainfall. Found in the Bhabar,the Shiwaliks and the Western Himalayas upto 1000 meters above sea level. The most dominat species are olive,acacia modesta and pistachio. Small evergreen stunted trees and shrubs including thorny species,herbs and grasses are also found.
4. Montane Temperate Forests
a. Montane Wet Temperate Forests – These forests grow where the mean annual rainfall is 150 -300 cm,mean annual temperature of 11°C -14°C. They grow at a height of 1800 to 3000 meters above sea level. They mainly occur in the Eastern Himalayan Region to the east of 88°E longitude including West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Nagaland and in the higher hills of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Indian Chestnut, deodar, birch, plum, oak and hemlock etc are some of the important species.
b. Himalayan Moist Temperate Forests- These forests are found in Kashmir,HimachalPradesh, Uttarakhand, Darjeeling and Sikkim with altitude varying between 1500 -3300 metres and with the rainfall of 150-250 cm. Pines,cedars,silver furs,spruce etc are the important trees.
c. Himalayan Dry Temperate Forests - They are found in the inner dry ranges of the Himalayas where the precipitation is below 100 cm,mostly snow. Such areas are in Ladakh, Lahul, Chamba, Kinnaur, Garhwal and Sikkim. These forests are predominantly coniferous with xerophytic shrubs. Deodar, oak, maple, olive, celtis etc are the main trees.
5. Alpine Forests- These are found all along the Himalayas at altitudes ranging between 2900 to 3500 meters. Alpine forest can be divided into-
a. Sub-Alpine Forests- They occur at the upper limit of tree forest adjoining alpine scrub and grasslands. Sub-alpine are a mixture of coniferous and broad leaved trees in which the coniferous trees attain a height of 30 meter and the broad leaved trees of 10 meter. The important species are Spruce, rhodendron, plum, fir etc.
b. Moist Alpine Scrub Forests - Moist alpine scrub is a low evergreen dense growth that occurs at 3000 meters. Rhodendron, honeysuckle, birch etc are the important species.
c. Dry Alpine Scrub – Dry alpine scrub is the uppermost limit of scrub xerophytic, dwarf shrubs over 3,500 meters above sea level. The important species are potentilla, juniper, honeysuckle, artemesia etc.
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