NATURAL VEGETATION

Importance of natural vegetation and forests : Forest constitute one of the most important basic natural resources of the country. Ecological view : Forests help in occurrence of rainfall, promote soil conservation in catchment areas, regulate runoff, improve moisture holding capacity of the soils and maintain ecological balance.

Point of economy : Forest lands can be utilized as grazing grounds for livestock. Great demand for timber which resulted into development of commercial forestry. Many products like charcoal wood, pulp and matchwood, canes, rose wood, sandal wood, lac, resins, honey, herb, fruits, dyes, tans, kendu are obtained from forest which highly commercial value both conservation and development of forest resource is as important as agriculture and industry.

FOREST TYPES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION IN INDIA

Forest Types : Terrain, climate, soil and water conditions greatly influence the character and type of vegetation. The Himalayan region, possesses a variety of vegetation with a distinctive character of alpine type at higher altitudes and this region is clearly distinguished from the rest of the country. Climatic factors mainly temperature and rainfall determine which plant community can flourish in a specific habitat. Soils and drainage considerably introduce modifications, and thus we have edaphic types such as the tidal forests.

Tropical wet evergreen and semi evergreen forests are found in Southern Western Ghats, north-eastern India and Plains of West Bengal with altitude ranging from 500-1500 mts and rainfall exceeding 200cms. Height of trees is from 45-60mts.Vegetation is very dense. Variety of species is very large consists of rose wood, paan, aini, telsur.

EVERGREEN

SEMI EVERGREEN

Tropical moist deciduous forests are found in Western ghats and ChotaNagpur plateau and Siwaliks of Himalayas. These forests have hilly terrains and plateau regions with rainfall between 100-200cms. These are tropical monsoon forests with tall trees which rise upto 25-60mts. Teak is a dominant species and other species are sandal wood, sal and shisham

Tropical dry deciduous forests occupy the large part of peninsular plateau, Ganga plain and area between the Thar, the Himalayas and the Western Ghats. They cover vast areas of plateau and plain areas with rainfall between 70-100cms. This type of forest is found with open formations and the important species are teak, bamboo, sal and khair.

Thorn forests are found in the plains of Punjab, seaside's of Western ghats and the drier parts of the Deccan plateau, this type forests are found in dry areas with rainfall less than 70cms. The vegetation consists of open stunted forests and xerophytic bushes and trees are just 6-7mts high. Acacias and euphoria's are common species everywhere.

Tidal forests are found in channels and islands of the Indian deltas like Ganga, Mahanadi, Godavari and Krishna. They grow in the brackish as well as fresh waters areas and where mud and silt get accumulated. Mangrove is the most important tree in these forests which reaches 30mts high. Canes and palms are the species.

The Himalayan Temperate and Alpine forests are found in all the ranges of middle and upper Himalayas. The trees range from 100-250cms.at an elevation 1600-3000mtsand the Alphine forests at a higher elevation of 3500mts and above.A great variety of species like broad leafed temperate evergreen trees like oaks, laurels, chestnuts, walnuts etc… The Alphine vegetation consists of birch junifers, silver fir and shrubby rhododendrons.

Distribution of Forest Lands : According to 2000-01 statistics, the forest land occupied about 675538 Sq.K.m. which accounts for 20.55% per cent of the total geographical area of the country. The largest area forest land 77265 Sq.K.m. is seen in Madhya Pradesh while the lowest 1745 Sq.K.m is in Haryana. Highest concentration of forest land is registered I Arunachal Pradesh state with 62.1 per cent of its geographical area while the lowest concentration is in Haryana state with 3.8 per cent. The Andaman and Nicobar islands are also found with high concentration of forest cover.

Development of Forests : Problems: The continuous chaotic growth of population and greed of the present man’s short sighted and unplanned commercial and subsistence gathering activities like indiscriminate lumbering, charcoal burning, firewood collection, over grazing and jhumming type of cultivation and annual forest fires have been causing considerable damage to forest wealth system in our country. Forests in India have been degenerated and degraded into barren and unproductive lands. To alleviate this serious concern, the development of different kinds of forests on war-foot lines is an important means at this end.

THANQ.... BY, COSMONAUTS

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