Vegetation of India | Forest Information of India | Indian Forest Types

Vegetation of India | Forest Information of India | Indian Forest Types

Types of Forests in India

Types of Forests:

A. Tropical wet Forests

These are made up of Tropical Evergreen, Tropical Semi Evergreen, Tropical Dry Evergreen and Tropical Moist Deciduous Forests.

1. Tropical Evergreen Forests

• Rainfall more than 250-300 cms a year. These are typically called Rainforest's. They cover 49% of total forest area.
• Rainforest's are found in the areas below a height of 900 meters in Western Ghats, Northeast, Andaman & Nicobar and West Coastal Plains. The species are broad leafed evergreens. 
• Mostly, the species are Rosewood, Ebony, Mahogany, Rubber, Ironwood, Gurjan and Sissoo.

2. Tropical Semi-Evergreen Forests

• These forests are in the regions receiving between 200-250 cms of rainfall. They are made up of evergreen and deciduous species. 
• They occur in norther parts of West Bengal, Orissa hills and coast, parts of Andaman and Nicobar.The species are Champa, Rosewood, Laurel and Aini.

3. Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests

• These forests occur along Tamil Nadu coast and have developed under northeast monsoon rainfall. The average rainfall is above 100 cms.
• The species are evergreen and include palms, casuarina, Khirni, Jamun and Neem.

4. Tropical Moist Deciduous Forests

• These have developed in the regions with 100-150 cms of rainfall. These forests have trees which develop flowers before leaves. Sal and Teak grows more in these areas.
• Sal is more widespread than Teak because Sal grows in more humid conditions.The other species besides Sal and Teak are Sandalwood, Kussum, Ebony, Khair and Shisham. 
• They are distributed in northeast, eastern slopes of Himalayas and Central Plateaus.

B. Tropical Dry Forests

1. Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests

• They develop in regions with rainfall between 75-100 cms. They show a bushveld or parkland appearance.
• They occur on the low hills of Andhrapradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhyapradesh. The species are teak ( which dominates in western and central India) , Sal ( which dominates in east, northeast and north India), Khair, Tamarind and others.

2. Tropical Thorn Forests

• These are developed in the area or regions with rainfall between 60-100 cms. The vegetation is deciduous, of low density and made up of low trees which are throny.
• These forests are distributed in Rajasthan, northern Gujarat, the drier parts of Deccan , etc. 
• The species are Tamarind, Babul, Kikar, Date Palm and Cacti.

Evergreen Tropical Forests

C. Temperate Forests

These include temperate evergreen forests and coniferrous forests.

1. Temperate Broadleaf Hill Forest

• These occur in altitudes between 800-1800 where the annual rainfall is 75-125 cms. These forests are a mixture of tropical and temperate evergreen forests.
• These forests are found in highlands of Chattisgarh, Nilgiri and Palani Hills and lower slopes of Eastern Himalayas. 
• The species are Magnolia, Deodhar and Hemlock.
• Shola Forest is a special type of temperate broad leaf hill forest, it is a type of rain forest which originated millions of years ago and is found in Nilgiris ( especially in Silent Valley region of Kerala ). The trees are short with leathery leaves and the forests are dense.

2. Montanne Wet Temperate Forests

• These forests occur in altitudes between 1800 m to 3000 m where rainfall is 150-300 cms. They occur in higher hills of Tamilnadu, Kerala, Easter Himalayas of Assam and West Bengal. 
• The important species are Oak, a temperate broad leaf evergreen species, Deodhar, Pine and Magnolia.

3. Montanne Moist Temperature Forest

• These occur in the temperate regions of eastern and western Himalayas between heights of 1600 m to 3500 m.The dominant species are the conifers though some temperate broadleaf evergreen species like Oak. The conifers are Spruce, Deodhar, Pine and Birch.

4. Alpine Forests

• These occur at elevations between 2900-3500 meters. They are a mixed forest of low height ( i.e. Shrub ) temperate deciduous and temperate evergreen species. They are made up of Fir, Spruce, Birch and Rhododendron. 
• At elevations higher than 3500 m and up to 4500 m the vegetation is made up of Alpine Grass.

D. Tidal / Littoral / Swamp Forests

• These are tropical forests which grow in inter-tidal zone of the littoral areas where the rainfall is between 40 to 200 cms. 
• They are made up of the salt tolerant species which grow in brackish water conditions. They include mangrove forests.They are evergreen. The typical species are Sundarl, Pine, Coconut, Agar etc.

Note on Himalayan Forests

Himalayan Forests

• The Himalayan forests show changes in the type of forest with height ( because of changing climate with height . For example, in Eastern Himalayas till 900 meters tropical evergreen and semi tropical evergreen occurs. 
• Between 900-1800 meters, the evergreen montanne forest made up of pines and broad leaf oak occurs. Between 1800 m - 2800 m monsoon temperate forest with broadleaf oak, laural and chestnut occurs. 
• Above 2800 m, the coniferrous forests occur. In Eastern Himalayas, he confir deodhar does not occur.
• The vegetation sequence in western Himalayas is also the same except that coniferrous forest starts at a much lower height. In Wester Himalayas , deodhar dominates the conifers.

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