Natural Vegetation and Wildlife

Our country India is one of the twelve mega bio-diversity countries of the world. With about
47,000 plant species India occupies tenth place in the world and fourth in Asia in plant
diversity.
There are about 15,000 flowering plants in India which account for 6 per cent in the world’s
total number of flowering plants.
India also has approximately 90,000 species of animals as well as a rich variety of fish in its
fresh and marine waters.
Natural vegetation refers to a plant community which has grown naturally without human aid
and has been left undisturbed by humans for a long time. This is termed as virgin vegetation.
The term flora is used to denote plants of a particular region or period.
The species of animals are referred to as fauna.
This huge diversity in flora and fauna kingdom is due to the following factors.
1. RELIEF
a. LAND
The nature of land influences the type of vegetation. The fertile level is generally devoted to
agriculture. The undulating and rough terrains
are areas where grassland and woodlands develop and give shelter to a variety of wild life.
b. Soil
The sandy soils of the desert support cactus and thorny bushes while wet, marshy, deltaic soils
support mangroves and deltaic vegetation.
The hill slopes with some depth of soil have conical trees.
2. CLIMATE
a. Temperature
The character and extent of vegetation are mainly determined by temperature along with
humidity in the air, precipitation and soil. On the slopes of the Himalayas and the hills of the
Peninsula above the height of 915 meters, the fall in the temperature affects the types of
vegetation and its growth.
b. Photoperiod (Sunlight)
The variation in duration of sunlight at different places is due to differences in latitude,
altitude, season and duration of the day. Due to longer duration of sunlight, trees grow faster in
summer.
c. Precipitation
In India almost, the entire rainfall is brought in by the advancing southwest monsoon (June to
September) and retreating northeast monsoons. Areas of heavy rainfall have more dense
vegetation as compared to other areas of less rainfall.
Forests are renewable resources and play a major role in enhancing the quality of
environment.
i. They modify local climate,
ii. control soil erosion,
iii. regulate stream flow,
iv. support a variety of industries,
v. provide livelihood for many communities
vi. offer panoramic or scenic view for recreation.
vii. It controls wind force and temperature and causes rainfall.
viii. It provides humus to the soil and shelter to the wild life.
d. ECOSYSTEM
All the plants and animals in an area are interdependent and interrelated to each other in their
physical environment, forming an ecosystem. Human beings are also an integral part of the
ecosystem.
TYPES OF VEGETATION
The following major types of vegetation may be identified in our country

Tropical Evergreen (Rain) Forests

 Are also known as rainforests and occur in regions near the equator and the tropics

 Receive a heavy rainfall throughout the year

 Don't shed their leaves ever due to the absence of a particular dry season and this is the
reason they are called evergreen.

 The trees in these rainforests grow close to each other and have thick tree cover at the
top (canopies) which do not allow sunlight to reach the ground even in the daytime.

 Important trees in rainforests are rosewood, mahogany and ebony. These trees are also
called hardwood trees.

 In India, evergreen forests are found in the deltas of Ganga, Godavari, Mahanadi, and
other rivers.

 They can also be found in northern Andaman and Nicobar, Tamil Nadu coast,
Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, upper parts of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya,
Nagaland, Tripura and West Bengal.

Tropical Deciduous Forests

 Are also called monsoon forests and are found in India, northern Australia, and Central
America
 The trees here experience seasonal changes and shed their leaves in the dry season to
save water.
 Hardwood trees found here are sal, teak, neem, sagwan(sagon) sandal, peepal and
sheesham. These trees are very useful in making furniture, transportation and
construction materials.
 Animals found in those forests are lions, tigers, monkeys, elephants, and langurs.
 In India, Tropical deciduous forests are found throughout the northern part of India
except in the Northeast. These forests are also found in eastern slopes of Western Ghats,
Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Tropical Thorn Forest and Scrubs
 Their chief characteristics are as follows:
 These forests occur in areas which have less than 70 cm of rainfall annually.
 They are found in the north-western parts of the country including semi-arid area of
Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
 (The commonly found trees in these forests are short, stunted and scattered
 Leaves are waxy and shining sunward side.
 In these forests the common animals found are goats, wild asses, horses, camels,
wolves, tigers and lions.
 Babool, kikar, khair, khejri, date and cactus are some examples of trees.

Mountain vegetation (Coniferous/ Taiga)

 Found in the regions with very low temperature and precipitation in the form of snow
fall.
 Trees are generally of very soft wood.
 Evergreen
 Plants develop in conical shape.
 Leaves are in conical shape or have needle like structure.
 In higher mountainous regions where land is covered with snow or ice for most of the
time, tundra vegetation develops.
 Above that, up to a height of 3000 meters, temperate forests flourish. Here coniferous
trees like pine, deodar, silver fir, spruce and cedar are commonly found.
Mangrove Forests

 The mangrove tidal forests are found in the areas of coasts inÙuenced by tides. Mud and
silt get accumulated on such coasts.
 Dense mangroves are the common varieties with roots of the plants submerged under
water.
 In the Ganga Brahamaputra delta, sundari trees are found, which provide durable hard
timber.
 Important Trees- Palm, coconut, keora, agar, also grow in some parts of the delta.
 Animals (found in this region)-Royal Bengal Tiger is the famous animal in these forests.
Turtles, crocodiles, gharials and snakes are also found in these forests
 The deltas of the Ganga, the Mahanadi, the Krishana, the Godavari and the Kaveri are
covered by such vegetation
WILDLIFE
India is also rich in its fauna. It has approximately 90,000 animal species. The country has
about 2,000 species of birds. They constitute 13% of
the world’s total. There are 2,546 species of fish, which account for nearly 12% of the world’s
stock.
It also shares between 5 and 8 per cent of the world’s amphibians, reptiles and mammals.
The elephants are the most majestic animals among the mammals. They are found in the hot
wet forests of Assam, Karnataka and Kerala.
One-horned rhinoceroses are the other animals, which live in swampy and marshy lands of
Assam and West Bengal.
Arid areas of the Rann of Kachchh and the Thar Desert are the habitat for wild ass and camels
respectively. Indian bison, nilgai (blue bull), chousingha (four horned antelope), gazel and
different species of deer are some other animals found in India.
India is the only country in the world that has both tigers and lions. The natural habitat of the
Indian lion is the Gir forest in Gujarat. Tigers are found in the forests of Madhya Pradesh, the
Sundarbans of West Bengal and the Himalayan region.
Ladakh’s freezing high altitudes are a home to yak, the shaggy horned wild ox weighing around
one tonne, the Tibetan antelope, the bharal (blue sheep), wild sheep, and the kiang (Tibetan
wild ass).
Bird life in India is colourful. Peacocks, pheasants, ducks, parakeets, cranes and pigeons are
some of the birds inhabiting the forests and wetlands
of the country.
To protect the flora and fauna of the country, the government has taken many steps.
a. Fourteen biosphere reserves have been set up in the country to protect Ùora and fauna. Four
out of these, the Sunderbans in the West Bengal, Nanda Devi in Uttarakhand, the Gulf of
Mannar in Tamil Nadu and the Nilgiris (Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) have been included
in the world network of Biosphese reserves.
b. Financial and technical assistance is provided to many Botanical Gardens by the government
since 1992.
c. Project Tiger, Project Rhino, Project Great Indian Bustard and many other Eco-
developmental projects have been introduced.
d. 89 National Parks, 490 Wildlife sanctuaries and Zoological gardens are set up to take care of
Natural heritage.