Natural Vegetation

The following are the principal types of natural vegetation in India: (1) Tropical Evergreen Rain Forests, (2) Deciduous or Monsoon Type of Forests, (3) Dry Deciduous Forests and Scrubs, (4) Semi- Desert and Desert Vegetations, (5) Tidal or Mangrove Forests and (6) Mountain Forests. • Tropical evergreen rain forests: These forests grow in areas where rainfall is more than 200 cm. They are mainly found on the slopes of the Western Ghats and the Northeastern regions of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, Nagaland, the Tarai areas of the Himalayas and the Andaman groups of Islands. The trees in these belts have dense growth. Important varieties of trees are sishu, chap lash, rosewood, mahogany, bamboos, garjan and sandalwood. • Deciduous or Monsoon type of forests: These forests are found in areas where the rainfall is between 100 cm and 200 cm. These forests grow on the lower slope of the Himalayas, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and the adjoining regions. The trees of these forests shed their leaves during dry winter and dry summer. The main trees are teak, sal, sandalwood, deodar, blue gum, ebony, sis am, jackfruit, mahua, pal ash, arjun, khair and bamboo. • Dry deciduous forests and Scrubs: These forests grow in areas where the rainfall is between 50 cm and 100 cm. These are found in areas of central Deccan plateau, South-east of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Dwarf Deciduous trees and long- grasses grow in these regions. Most of the areas are used for agriculture. • Semi- deserts and Deserts vegetations: These types of vegetations grow in areas where rainfall is less than 50 cm. Mostly thorny bushes, acacia, babul and sand binding grasses are found in this vegetation zone. The Indian wild date, known as“Khejurs” is common in these deserts. These plants grow far apart from each other. They have long roots and thick fleshy stems in