Natural Vegetation and Wildlife

Because India's climate, soil and relief change so much from one region to another, its plant and animal life changes with them. From the dripping rainforests of the north-east to the thorny scrub of the desert, and from the mangroves of the coast to the alpine meadows of the mountains, India holds an extraordinary variety of life. Knowing the five main types of natural vegetation, the conditions each needs, and how India protects its wildlife is core exam material.

Natural vegetation is the plant life that grows on its own, without human help, and has been left undisturbed for a long time. The term flora refers to the plants of a region and fauna to its animals.

India is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. The kind of vegetation that grows in a place depends mainly on the climate (especially the amount of rainfall) and on the temperature, the soil and the relief. As these conditions change across the country, so does the vegetation, giving five major types.

Tropical evergreen forests, also called tropical rainforests, grow in the regions of very heavy rainfall, above about 200 centimetres a year. They are found in the Western Ghats, the islands, and the north-eastern states.

Because rain and warmth are available all year, the trees do not shed their leaves at any one time. These forests therefore look green throughout the year. They are dense and tall, rising in several layers. The canopy is so thick that sunlight barely reaches the ground. Ebony, mahogany and rosewood are typical trees. Animals include elephants, monkeys and the one-horned rhinoceros.

Tropical deciduous forests are the most widespread forests of India, also known as the monsoon forests. They grow in regions with moderate rainfall, between about 70 and 200 centimetres.

Their key feature is that the trees shed their leaves for a few weeks in the dry season to save water. They are divided by rainfall into moist deciduous forests (wetter) and dry deciduous forests (drier). Teak is the most important tree. Sal, sandalwood and bamboo are also common. Lions, tigers, elephants and deer are found in these forests.

In the dry regions of the country, where rainfall is below about 70 centimetres, the natural vegetation is thorn forest and scrub. These are found in north-western India, including Rajasthan, Gujarat and nearby areas. They also grow in the semi-arid interior of the Deccan plateau, which sits in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats. Open, stunted thorn forest of this kind covers western Andhra Pradesh, the Rayalaseema region, and interior Karnataka.

The plants here are drought-resistant. They have long roots to reach water deep underground. Their leaves are reduced to thorns, or thick and fleshy, to cut down water loss. Acacia, cactus and date palms are common. Animals such as the camel, wild ass, foxes and desert lizards live here.

Montane forests are mountain forests whose character changes with altitude. Climbing the Himalayas, wet temperate forests of oak and chestnut come first. These give way to coniferous trees such as pine, deodar and silver fir. Higher still are alpine grasslands, and finally the snow line. Animals include the Kashmir stag, snow leopard and wild sheep.

Mangrove forests, also called tidal forests, grow along the coasts in areas of mud and silt where rivers meet the sea. They are found in the deltas of the Ganga, the Mahanadi, the Godavari and the Krishna. The trees have special roots that survive in salty, waterlogged ground. The Sundarbans delta, in West Bengal, is famous for its mangroves and for the Royal Bengal Tiger. The delta takes its very name from the Sundari tree, the mangrove that grows thickly there.

Matching questions often pair a famous tree with its home state. Two pairs are worth fixing in memory.

• Sundari: the mangrove tree of the Sundarbans delta in West Bengal.
• Sandalwood: chiefly associated with Karnataka, not with Kerala.

India's forests are home to a rich variety of animals. Many species are now threatened by hunting, pollution and the loss of their forest homes. To protect them, the country has set up a network of protected areas: national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and biosphere reserves.

Special schemes target particular animals, the best known being Project Tiger, launched to save the tiger, and Project Elephant. Birds also receive protection, and certain species, such as the peacock, are given special importance. The aim of all these efforts is conservation: using and protecting nature so that this wealth of life survives for the future.

One protected area carries special weight in exams. Silent Valley National Park lies in the Nilgiri Hills of Kerala. It is not in the Nallamalai range, which belongs to Andhra Pradesh. The park preserves one of India's last undisturbed stretches of tropical evergreen rainforest. The Kunthi river originates in these rainforests and flows through the valley. The valley became a symbol of conservation when a hydroelectric dam planned inside it was abandoned after nationwide protest. Years later, the Pathrakkadavu hydroelectric project was proposed near the park, reviving the same conflict between power generation and rainforest protection.

To decide which plants and animals need the most urgent protection, they are grouped by how secure their numbers are. The main categories are worth memorising.

• Normal species have populations that are healthy and in no danger, such as cattle and the sal tree.
• Endangered species are in serious danger of dying out. They will become extinct if the threats continue. Examples include the tiger and the Indian rhinoceros.
• Vulnerable species have falling numbers and could slip into the endangered group, such as the Asiatic elephant.
• Rare species have small populations and may become endangered or vulnerable, such as the Himalayan brown bear.
• Endemic species are found naturally in only one area, such as the Andaman wild pig.
• Extinct species have already vanished completely, such as the Asiatic cheetah in India.

The variety of life, called biodiversity, is being lost at an alarming rate. The causes are almost all human.

The main causes are:

• Habitat destruction: clearing forests for farmland, building dams and roads, mining, and the spread of towns destroy the homes of wild creatures.
• Hunting and poaching: animals killed for skins, horns and tusks have been wiped out in many areas.
• Over-grazing and firewood collection: livestock and human pressure strip the land bare.
• Forest fires and pollution: add further damage to already stressed ecosystems.
• Historical deforestation: large-scale commercial felling during the colonial period removed vast areas of forest. A fast-growing population then accelerated the loss further.

When a habitat is destroyed, every species living in it suffers at once.

To protect what remains, India passed the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972. It created a list of protected species, banned hunting and trade in them, and set up a legal network of national parks and sanctuaries.

For management, India's forests are placed in three classes:

• Reserved forests, the most strictly protected and the most valuable for conserving forest and wildlife.
• Protected forests, which are guarded against further depletion.
• Unclassed forests, other wooded lands, often belonging to communities and private owners.

Reserved and protected forests together are called permanent forests.

Conservation is not the work of government alone. Local communities have often led the way:

• Chipko Movement: in the Himalayas, villagers hugged trees to stop them from being cut down, showing how community action can protect forests.
• Joint Forest Management (JFM): local village committees work with the forest department to protect and restore degraded forests. In return, they share in the produce.
• Sacred groves: in many parts of India, patches of forest are preserved for religious reasons. These have become valuable refuges for rare plants and animals.

Such efforts prove that people and nature can thrive together.

Forest cover means the land actually carrying trees, measured by satellite and reported in the India State of Forest Report by the Forest Survey of India. It is different from the area that the law merely records as forest. Forest cover stands at a little over 20% of India's geographical area, well short of the long-standing goal. The National Forest Policy and the National Forestry Action Programme, the government's plan for restoring forests, both aim to bring one-third of the country under forest or tree cover.

Forest cover is split by density into three classes. Very dense forest has the thickest canopy, moderately dense forest comes next, and open forest has the thinnest. Dense forest, the very dense and moderately dense classes together, is only a part of the total, so the share of dense forest within the total cover is smaller than people often assume.

The amount of forest varies sharply between states, and exams test both extremes.

• Largest forest cover by area: Madhya Pradesh holds the most forest cover by area.
• Highest forest cover as a percentage: the small north-eastern and hill states lead. Arunachal Pradesh has over 80% of its area under forest and a large Protected Area Network, and it shares roughly the same latitude as northern Rajasthan. Mizoram also records a very high percentage.
• Lowest forest cover: mostly-plains states such as Haryana have the least forest, since their land is given over to farming.
• Ranking among central and eastern states: by percentage of area under forest, the order from least to most runs Maharashtra, then Madhya Pradesh, then Odisha, then Chhattisgarh, which has the highest share of the four.