Forests in India

India globally possesses a distinct identity not onlyThe forest and tropical vegetation of North East
because of its culture, history and geography butIndia ( Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura
also because of its rich diversity of naturaland Meghalaya as well as the plain regions of
ecosystems. Indian forests are ancient in natureArunachal Pradesh) are evergreen and
and composition. The people of India performsemi-evergreen rain forests, moist deciduous
large number of ceremonies centred on trees andmonsoon forests, riparian forests, swamps and
plant. Even today in many parts of India thegrasslands. Evergreen rain forest are found in
sacred grove exist and worshiped. There areNaga Hills, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Manipur where
variety of forests in India which provide shelter tothe rain fall exceeds 2300 mm per annum. The
the wide range of fauna, avi-fauna and insects.huge Dipterocarpus macrocarpus and Shorea
The dimension of Indian forests ranges fromassamica occur singly in Assam. The monsoon
evergreen tropical rain forests in the Andamanforests occur mostly in the north east region and
and Nicobar Islands, the Western Ghats, and theWest Bengal. Due to the heavy rain fall in these
north-eastern states, to dry alpine scrub high inregion, the forest is very dense and heavy which
the Himalaya to the north. The country has semiprovide shelter and food to the animals of all kind.
evergreen rain forests, deciduous monsoonIn Western Ghat the rain fall is less. The famous
forests, thorn forests, subtropical pine forests inforest in this region are several tree species of
the lower montane zone and temperate montanegreat commercial significance (e.g. Indian
forests.rosewood Dalbergia latifolia, Malabar Kino
According to the survey of forest departmentPterocarpus marsupium, teak and Terminalia
the actual forest cover of India is 19.27% of thecrenulata). In the Southern part there are ranges
geographic area. There are 16 major forest typeswhich have extensive grasslands with patches of
recognized which are subdivided into 221 minorever green forests. These are shelter to
types. The main part of tropical forests in Indiaelephants, gaur and other large animals.
are found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; theIn short forest is an ecosystem consisting of
Western Ghats,the greater Assam region in thetrees which support innumerable life forms and it
north East ern part. Little bit of rain forest areis an important part of environment. These are
also found in the Orissa state also. It shouldthere to clean the air and cool it on hot days and
mention here that the semi evergreen rain forestconserve heat at night. More over forest act as
is more extensive than the evergreen formationan unique sound absorbers. Our rain fall also
as evergreen forest tend to degrade into semidepends on forest. It is an excellent means to
evergreen with human interference.keep our environment balanced.