In this ppt, you will study about the different biographical zone of India and types of forest in India and about Indian Biodiversity with a video made by me on youtube. you can follow me here and you can see my more video on youtube.
1. Bio-geographical Zone of India
and Major Vegetation
Presented by
Vivek Kumar Singh
M.Sc. 2nd semester
Under the Supervision
of
Prof. N. B. Singh
2. What is Bio-geography?
Bio-geography is the study of the origin of
world biota, environmental relationship and
distribution of organism, both past and
present, over the face of earth.
6. 1.Trans Himalayan
This zone is estimated 1 lakh, 86 Thousands and 200
km2.
Himalayi mountain region is bow shaped, situated in
North West of India.
Virtually this entire zone in India is in Lahul-Spiti
district of Himanchal Pradesh and in Laddakh.
The mountains of this region have the richest wild
sheep and goat community in the worlds with eight
distinct species and subspecies.
7. 2. Himalayas
The Himalayas consist of the youngest mountain chains in
the world.
The forests are very dense with extensive growth of grass and
evergreen tall trees.
Oak, chestnut, pine, deodar are abundant in Himalayas.
There is no vegetation above the snowline.
Several interesting animals live in the Himalayan ranges.
Chief species include wild sheep, mountain goats, shrew,
Panda and snow leopard are found here.
8. 3. Indian Desert
This region consists of parts of Rajasthan, Kutch, Delhi and
parts of Gujarat.
The climate is characterized by very hot and dry summer
and cold winter.
Rainfall is less than 70 cm.
The plants are mostly xerophytic, Babul, Kikar, wild palm
grows in areas of moderate rainfall.
Indian Bustard, a highly endangered bird is found here.
Camels, wild asses, foxes, and snakes are found in hot and
arid deserts.
9. 4. Semi-Arid
Adjoining the desert are the semi-arid areas, a transitional
zone between the desert and the denser forests of the
Western Ghats.
The natural vegetation is thorn forest.
Thorny scrubs, grasses and some bamboos are present in
some regions.
A few species of xerophytic herbs like Acacia, Balanites,
Capparis and Grewia.
The Asiatic Lion is restricted only in Gir National park in
Gujrat, in this region.
10. 5. Western Ghat
This zone extends from Kanyakumari in south to Tapti river in north.
The ghat is situated on 2700 m elevation from sea level.
The zone is rich in evergreen forest. It has 4000 species of higher
plants, which account of 27% of India’s 15000 species. There are 1800
endemic species in the region.
The rainfall is heavy about 2000 mm.
Forest have been replaced by tea, coffee, cocoa, rubber, cardamom,
Chincona.
The sub-tropical forest occur in Anaimalai and Nilgiris hills at an
altitude of 1800 m. This zone have large population of Nilgiri Langur,
Tiger, Leopard, Indian Elephant etc.
11. 6. Deccan Peninsula
It covers 43% of Indian sub-continent.
The zone does contain some more conserved forest area of
India in MP, Maharashtra and Orissa.
It is the premier area for the deciduous forest, thorn forest.
Only a small area evergreen forest occur.
Plants are mostly Tectona grandis, Shorea robusta, Acacia,
Albizia amara and Hardwickia.
Most wild life species are widespread throughout the zone,
e.g. Chital ,sambhar, Nilgai, Chowsingha, Elephant.
Tigers are absent from this region.
12. 7. Gangetic Plain
This is the largest unit of the Great Plain of India. Ganga is
the main river after which this plain is named.
This is divided in to Three zone-
i. Upper plain of Ganga (from Delhi to Allahabad)
ii. Middle plain of Ganga (from Allahabad to Bihar)
iii. Lower plain of Ganga ( in West Bangal)
This is one of the most fertile area.
This is 2400 km. in length and 240-320 km in width.
The trees belonging to these forests are Teak, Sal, Shisham,
Mahua, Khair etc.
13. 8. North-East India
Of all zone in India, perhaps this zone is richest in
communities, in species and in endemics.
About 40% of total surface area distributed in states
of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland
& Tripura is forest.
Botanically, Khasi- Jaintia hills of Meghalaya are
known as one of the richest zone in Asia.
North –East India is the transition zone between the
Indian, Indo-Malayan, and Indo-Chinese region.
14. 9. Island
There are two islands,
1- Andaman and Nicobar island, located in bay of Bengal.
2- Lakshadweep island, located in Arabian Sea and consist of 43
small islands.
Andaman and Nicobar island consist 348 islands, stretching
about 590 km. In this zone tropical rain-forest is high. Here
86% area is legally under forest. In deciduous forest Terminalia
is common. It is recently declared as a hot- spot because of the
richness of endemic species.
15. 10. Coast
India has a coastline of 7,516.5 km.
The Indian coasts extending from Run of Kutch to Bangladesh.
The West coast is narrow and extending from Gulf of Cambay to
South.
The West coast is 50-65 km. wide.
The Eastern coast is extending from Bay of Bengal to South with
Eastern ghat.
The east coast is 450-750 km. wide.
Larger parts of the coastal plains are covered by fertile soils on
which different crops are grown. Rice is the main crop of these
areas. Coconut trees grow all along the coast.
16. Major Vegetation
Natural Vegetation= The naturally growing plant cover
without human aid, is called natural vegetation.
The vegetation which is undisturbed by the human is
called virgin vegetation.
Five types of major natural vegetation available in India are
as follows:
1. Tropical Evergreen Rainfall region.
2. Tropical Monsoon Forests
(1. Moist deciduous, 2. Dry Deciduous)
3. Thorny Forests & Bushes
4. Mountain Forests
5. Tidal Forests
17. 1. Tropical Evergreen Rainfall region
These forests are found over areas where the dry season is
short and the rainfall in more than 200 cm. The trees do not
shed leaves at any time of the trees and hence the
‘evergreen’ nomenclature. The trees reach a height of over
50 meters.
Tree attain a height of 60 meter.
These forests are common on the rainy slopes of the Western
Ghats and the hills of Assam and Andmaan Nicobar.
The wood of these forests is hard. The commercially useful
varieties include rosewood, ebony and mahogany.
18. 2. Tropical Monsoon Forests
The trees in these forests shed their leaves for about six to
eight weeks in summer.. The rainfall suited for such forests is
between 75 to 200 cm.
They are also called deciduous forests. Teak and Sal are the
most important trees of these forests. Teak is important
species of the moist deciduous. Sal is of the dry deciduous
variety. Other important trees are sandalwood and
rosewood.
The wood from these forests is used for making furniture,
building purposes and for making small boats. Teak grows
abundantly on the Western and Eastern Ghats.
19. 3. Thorny Forests & Bushes
Thorn forest grow in those region which receive less than
70 cm of rainfall.
This type of vegetation is found in the North-Western
part of India i.e. Gujrat, Raj., Madhya Pradesh.
The main plant species is Acacia, Palm, Euphorbia, and
Cactus.
Tree are scattered and they have long root, which go very
deep in the ground.
The stem is succulent to conserve water. Leaves are
usually modified in to spine. E.g. Opuntia.
The stem is modified in to thorn. E.g. Cactus.
20. 4. Mountain Forests
The forest in the mountainous area are called as mountain
forest. Different type of vegetation found at different
altitudes in the mountain.
The wet temperate type of forest is found between a height
of 1000 and 2000 meter. Evergreen broad leaf trees such as
oak and chestnut found in such forest.
Temperate forest are found between the height of 1500-
3000 meter. Pine, deodar, cedar is common on this
elevation.
Alpine vegetation are found on a height of 3600 meter or
more.
21. 5. Tidal Forests
They are also called as Deltai forest and Mangrove forest.
In India, they are part of the forests in the delta regions of
rivers Ganga and Brahmaputra, Kaveri, Krishna, Godavari
and Mahanadi.
The Sundarbans, named after the tree Sundari.
Because of saline water the plants became hard. Wood is
used to make boats.
Sundarban is a biosphere reserve, and Royal Bengal Tiger is
protected here.
