Forest Types
- 1. Forest types in India Prepared by: Er. Afzal Ahamed Malik
- 2. Forest Types Tropical Forest Montane Sub- Tropical Forest Temperate Montane Forest Alpine Forest Sub-Alpine Forest
- 3. Tropical Forest Tropical Moist Forest Tropical Moist Evergreen Tropical Moist Semi- evergreen Tropical Moist Deciduous Littoral and Swamp Tropical Dry Forest Tropical Dry Evergreen Tropical Dry Deciduous Tropical Thorn Forest
- 4. 1) Tropical Forest A type of forest found in areas with high regular rainfall and no more than two months of low rainfall, and consisting of a completely closed canopy of trees that prevents entry of sunlight to the ground, and discourages ground – cover growth.
- 5. I. Tropical Moist Forest Describes tropical rain forests plus tropical seasoned forest ( i.e., the forests of the wetter tropics)
- 6. A. Tropical Moist Evergreen In India such forest are found in very wet regions receiving more than 250cm average annual rainfall. These are climatic forests having luxuriantly growing lofty trees which are more than 45 meters in height. These are also called tropical rain forests. These forest are found in Andaman and Nicobar Island and parts of Karnataka, Assam and Bengal.
- 7. Tropical Moist Evergreen
- 8. B. Tropical Moist Semi- evergreen The annual rainfall of this type of forest is between 200 and 250cm. They are characterized by giant and luxuriantly growing intermixed deciduous and evergreen species of trees and shrubs. These forest are found in Eastern Orissa and upper Assam.
- 9. Tropical Moist Semi-evergreen
- 10. C. Tropical Moist Deciduous It receiving sufficiently rainfall between 100 to 200cm, spread over most of years. The dry periods are of short duration. Many plants of such forest show leaf- fall in hot summer. This forest are found along the wet Western side i.e., Mumbai, (N.E) – Andhra.
- 11. Tropical Moist Deciduous
- 12. D. Littoral and Swamp forest include the following types… Littoral and Swamp Forest Beach Forest Tidal or Mangrove Forest Fresh Water Swamp Forest
- 13. Littoral Forest
- 14. Swamp Forest
- 15. A. Beach Forest It found all along the sea beaches and river deltas. The soil is sandy having large amount of lime and salts but poor in nitrogen and other mineral nutrients. Water table is only few meters deep and temperature is moderate. The rainfall of this type of forest is 75cm to 500cm depending upon the area.
- 16. Beach Forest
- 17. B. Tidal or Mangrove Forest This forest grow near the deltas of rivers, swampy margins of island and along sea coasts. The soil is formed of silt, silt-loam or silt- clay and sand.
- 18. Tidal or Mangrove Forest
- 19. C. Fresh water swamp forest These forest grow in low lying areas where rain or swollen river water is collected for some time. Water table is near the surface.
- 20. II. Tropical Dry Forest Similar to Tropical Moist forest but characterized by high temperatures throughout the year. Predominantly deciduous trees shed their leaves to cope with it. Here sunlight can reach the ground so, the season that’s bad for the trees is good for the forest floor.
- 21. Tropical Dry Forest
- 22. A. Tropical Dry Evergreen These forest are found in the areas where dry season is comparatively longer. The trees are dense, evergreen and short about 10 to 15 meters high. These forest are found in Eastern part of Tamil Nadu, in east and west coasts.
- 23. B. Tropical Dry Deciduous These forest are distributed in the area where annual rainfall is usually low, ranging between 70 and 100cm. Such as Punjab, U.P., Bihar, Orissa. The dry season is long and most of the trees remain leafless during that season.
- 24. Tropical dry deciduous
- 25. C. Tropical Thorn Forest This forest found in the areas where annual rainfall is between 20 to 70cm. Dry season is hot and very long. They are found in South Punjab and Rajasthan. The vegetation in these area occur only along the rivers. The land away from the rivers and devoid of irrigation is mostly sandy and devoid of trees. The vegetation type consisting of small
- 26. Tropical Thorn Forest
- 27. 2) Montane Subtropical Forest Montane means – mountainous, specifically, related to the cool, moist upland slopes below the timberline Subtropical means – pertaining to the regions of the earth further from the equator than the tropical regions These forest are found in the region of fairly high rainfall but where temperature differences between winter and summer. Winter generally goes without rains.
- 28. They are found up to the altitude of about 1500 meters in South and up to t 1800 meter in the North. In composition, subtropical forests are almost intermediate between tropical forests and temperate forests. Montane subtropical forest Wet hill broad leaved forest Dry evergreen forest Pine forest
- 29. Montane Subtropical Forest
- 30. A. Wet hill broad leaved Forest B. Dry Evergreen Forest An area which are hilly and wetty, as well as which trees have wide leaf. They are found in Mahabaleshwar, Karnataka, parts of Assam and other parts of M.P. These forest are occupy the foot-hill, area of Himalayas. Foot-hill means – a hill at the base of a mountain or mountain range
- 31. C. Pine Forest They are found mostly in Western and Central Himalayas and in Assam hills. Pine means – ant tree (usually coniferous) which resembles a member of the genus in some respect.
- 32. Pine forest
- 33. 3) Temperate Montane Forest These forest occur in the Himalayas at the altitude from 1800 to 3800 meters, where humidity and temperatures are comparatively low.
- 34. Temperate Montane Forest Montane Wet Temperate Forest Himalayan Moist Temperate Forest Himalayan Dry Temperate Forest
- 35. A. Montane Wet temperate Forest These are found in Himalayas extending from Nepal to Assam at the altitude form 1800 to 3000m, as well as in some parts of south India. The forests in South are evergreen and are called sholas. Sholas means – a wild plant found in Bengal & Assam, which pith used for manufacturing of helmet and other decorative artifacts.
- 36. B. Himalayan Moist Temperate Forest These forests develop in the areas of lesser rainfall. The trees are high, sometimes up to 45 meters tall. C. Himalayan Dry Temperate Forest These forests are found in the Western Himalayas extending from a part of Uttaranchal through Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to Kashmir.
- 37. 4) Sub-alpine Forest The sub-alpine forests are found throughout Himalayas from Ladakh in the West to Arunachal in the East at the altitude from 2800m to 3800m. Annual rainfall is less than 65m but snowfall occur from several weeks in a year. Strong winds and below 0˙c temperature prevail for greater part of the year.
- 38. Sub-alpine Forest
- 39. 5) Alpine Forest Plants growing at the altitude from 2900 to 6000m are called alpine plants. In India, alpine flora occurs in Himalayas between 4500 and 6000 meters. At lower level, alpine forests consist of dwarf trees with or without conifers.
- 40. Alpine Forest Moist Alpine Forest Dry Alpine Forest
- 41. A. Moist Alpine Forest This type of vegetation is distributed extensively throughout the Himalayas above 3000 meters. It is most often dense and composed of evergreen dwarf Rhododendron species, some birch and other deciduous trees. Mosses and ferns cover the ground with varying amounts of alpine shrubs, flowering herbs and ferns.
- 42. Moist alpine forest
- 43. B. Dry Alpine Forest These are open xerophytic formation spread in U.P., Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Kashmir, species belonging to Kochia, Juniperus predominate in the vegetation which develops generally on lime stone rock.
