Natural Vegetation and

Wildlife

By Padmeswari
Jayaramachandran
Natural Vegetation – Plants that grow on their own
unaffected by man directly or indirectly. It includes
trees, bushes, herbs
• Tropical Evergreen forest-
• Rain fall – more than 200 cms; Temperature – 22 C
• Areas- Western Ghats in Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Assam , West Bengal, Nagaland,
Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya
Types of
• Trees- Rubber , Rosewood, Ebony , Coconut, Bamboo, Ironwood, Etc.
• Tropical Deciduous ( Monsoon Forest)
Forest (1/2)
• Rainfall – 100- 200 cms; Temperature – 27 c
• Areas – Sub Himalayan region- Punjab, Assam; Great Plains; Central India- Jharkhand,
Chhattisgarh, MP; South India- Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, AP
• Trees- Teak, Sal, Rosewood, Bamboo, padauk
• Features- They shed their leaves in Spring and Early summer
• Tropical Dry Forest
• Rain fall – 50-100 cms
• Areas- East Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Western UP, MP, Telangana, West Karnataka & East
TN
• Trees- Banyan, Palas, Kikar, Bamboo, Babool, Khair, etc
• Desert and Semi Desert Vegetation ( Tropical Thorn Forest)
• Rainfall – less than 50 cms
• Areas – West Rajasthan, South-west Haryana, North Gujrat, S.W. Punjab, Dry parts of
Karnataka, AP & Maharashtra
• Mountain Forests
• Eastern Himalayas
• Rainfall – more than 200 cms
• Altitude – 1220 – 2400 Mts ;Tress- Oak, Chestnut, Sal, Laurel, etc
Types of
• Altitude- 2400 -3600 mts; Trees- Oak, birch silver fir, juniper, etc
• Western Himalayas
Forest (2/2)
• Rainfall- Moderate
• Altitude – up to 900 mts ; States- J&K, H.P. , Uttarakhand; trees- Bushes and small
trees
• Altitude – 900-1800 mts ; Trees – Sal, Chir, dhak, jamun
• Altitude – 1800- 3000 mts; Trees – Chir, deodhar, Blue , Pine , Birch, Elder
• Alpine Forest
• Altitude – 2400 mts; Trees- Oak, Silverfir, pine, Juniper
• Riverine forest
• Areas- found along the river of great plain; Trees- Jamarisk and tamarind trees
• Tidal Forest ( Mangrove forest)
• Areas- Delta of Krishna, Godavari , Cauvery, Mahanadi, Ganga & Brahmaputra; Trees-
Casurina, Sundari
• Costal Forests ( Littoral Forest)
• Areas- Coast of Kerala and goa; Trees- Casurina , Palm and coconut
• Bio Sphere reserves are protected areas of land coastal
environments where in people are an integral component Bio Sphere
of the system
• India Govt has 18 bio sphere reserve which protect large
Reserves
area of natural habitat
• Project Tiger was launched April 1973 with an aim to
conserve tiger population
• The term wildlife includes animals of any habitat in nature
• Wild animals includes both vertebrate and invertebrates
• Indian fauna consists of 81,251 species of animals Wildlife
• Our country is a home to tigers, lions, pythons, wolves, foxes, camels, Asian elephants, etc
• Hunting, poaching, deforestation & other anthropogenic interference in the natural habitat have caused
extinction of some species
• India Board for Wildlife (1952): Measures for protection, conservation and management of wildlife by
the govt.
• Wildlife protection Act (1972): For protection of wildlife and counter and control poaching , smuggling
& illegal trade of wildlife
• Convention on Biological diversity (1992): recognizes sovernity and right of states to use their own
biological reserves
• We have 102 natural parks and 515 wildlife sanctuaries