Natural Vegetation Essay

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India is situated at tropical latitudes and has diverse temperature and rainfall regimes. The overall climate of India is suitable for the growth of forests. The climax formations of Indian subcontinent have been altered much due to human activities in the last few thousand years. However, the remaining vegetation shows that the natural vegetation of India primarily consists of forests. The grasslands found in the region are not natural plant formations but have originated secondarily due to destruction of natural forests in some places. Therefore, these represent various stages of seral (successional) development due to the influence of a variety of biotic influences. FORESTS OF INDIA The most important factors influencing the physiognomy, species composition, phenology etc. of Indian forests are temperature, rainfall, local edaphic and biotic factors. These factors have been used in the classification of Indian forests. Most detailed classification of Indian forests is by Champion and Seth (1967) in which 16 major types of forests have been recognized. These 16 major types can be grouped into 5 major categories viz. moist tropical, dry tropical, montane sub-tropical, temperate and alpine forests. (A) MOIST TROPICAL FORESTS These forests are found in the areas of quite high temperature and rainfall. The forests are dense, multi-layered and have many types of trees, shrubs and lians. These forests are further categorized into 4 types depending on the degree of wetness in the area and the dominant life form in the forest. (1) Tropical moist evergreen forests These are climatic climax forests found commonly in areas having annual rainfall above 250 cm and temperature 25-30oC. These forests are chiefly distributed on the western face of Western Ghats, Assam, Cachar, parts of West Bengal, northern Canara, Annamalai Hills and Coorg in Meysore and Andman
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