1. GEOGRAPHY
Chapter 5- Natural
Vegetation And Wildlife
By Abbas
Sultan,

2. Before We Start, I Would Like You To Know What
Is Actually Meant By Natural Vegetation.
Natural vegetation means any plants
or trees that grow on their own
‘naturally’ without any form of
human intervention. Certain type of
plants of trees have a natural place of
origin or habitat, and before humans
began to harvest vegetation and cut
down trees, this type of vegetation
would grow naturally with chemicals
such as pesticide, to manipulate its
growth . out any form of man-made

3. TROPICAL DECIDUOUS FORESTS
• Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending
to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees
or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the
shedding of other plant structures such as
petals after flowering or fruit when ripe. In a more
specific sense, deciduous means the dropping of a
part that is no longer needed, or falling away after its
purpose is finished. In plants it is the result of
natural processes. Deciduous has a similar meaning
when referring to animal parts, such as
deciduous antlers in deer, or deciduous teeth, also
known as baby teeth, in some mammals (including
human children).

4. A Deciduous Forest In Autumn
When autumn arrives and the
days are shorter or when plants
are drought-stressed, deciduous
trees decrease chlorophyll
pigment production, allowing
other pigments present in the
leaf to become
apparent, resulting in non-green
colored foliage. The brightest
leaf colors are produced when
days grow short and nights are
cool, but remain above
freezing. These other pigments
include carotenoids that are
yellow, brown, and orange.

6. A Deciduous Forest In Winter
The absence of leaves improves wind
transmission of pollen for wind-pollinated
plants and increases the visibility of the
flowers to insects in insect-pollinated
plants. This strategy is not without risks,
as the flowers can be damaged by frost
or, in dry season regions, result in water
stress on the plant. Nevertheless, there is
much less branch and trunk breakage
from glaze ice storms when leafless, and
plants can reduce water loss due to the
reduction in availability of liquid water
during cold winter days.

7. Mixed Deciduous Forest In Spring
Before the leaves die, some of
the food material they contain is
drawn back into the twigs and
branches where it is stored and
used in the following spring.
The warmer temperatures of
SPRING signal to the trees that
they can grow new leaves again,
and restart the cycle.

8. A Map Of Natural Vegetation In India

9. Deciduous Woody Plants
The deciduous characteristic has developed
repeatedly among woody plants. Trees
include Maple, many Oaks, Elm, Aspen, and Birch
, among others, as well as a number
of coniferous
genera, such as Larch and Met sequoia.
Deciduous shrubs
include honeysuckle, viburnum, and many
others. Most temperate woody vines are also
deciduous, including grapes, poison
ivy, Virginia, creeper, wisteria, etc. The
characteristic is useful in plant identification;
for instance in parts of Southern California and
the American Southeast, deciduous
and evergreen oak species may grow side by
side.

10. Temperature Deciduous Forest
Temperate deciduous forest biomes
are plant communities distributed in
North and South America, Asia and
Europe. They have formed under
climatic conditions which have great
seasonable temperature variability
with growth occurring during warm
summers and leaf drop in autumn and
dormancy during cold winters. These
seasonally distinctive communities
have diverse life forms that are
impacted greatly by the seasonality
of their climate, mainly temperature
and precipitation rates. These
varying and regionally different
ecological conditions produce
distinctive forest plant communities
in different regions.

11. Tropical and subtropical deciduous forest.
The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf
forest biome, also known as tropical dry
forest, is located at tropical and subtropical
latitudes. Though these forests occur in
climates that are warm year-round, and may
receive several hundred centimeters of rain
per year, they have long dry seasons which
last several months and vary with
geographic location. These
seasonal droughts have great impact on all
living things in the forest.

12. Tropical Ever-Green Forests
Tropical evergreen forests are usually found in
areas receiving more than 200 cm of rainfall
and having a temperature of 15 °C to 30 °C.
They occupy about seven per cent of the
Earth's land surface and harbour more than
half of the world’s plants and animals.
In India, evergreen forests are found on
the western slopes of the Western
Ghats in States such as Maharashtra
, Kerala and Karnataka. And also found in
Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya,
Nagaland, Tripura, West Bengal and
Andaman and Nicobar Islands. They are
also found in the hills of Jaintia and Khasi.
Some of the trees found in Indian Tropical
Forests
are rosewood, mahogany and ebony. Bambo
o and reeds are also common.

13. Mangrove Forests
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium
height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal
sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics –
mainly between latitudes 25° N and 25° S. The
remaining mangrove forest areas of the world in 2000
was 53,190 square miles (137, 760 km²) spanning to
118 countries and territories The word is used in at
least three senses: most broadly to refer to the
habitat and entire plant assemblage or mangal for
which the terms mangrove forest biome, mangrove
swamp and mangrove forest are also used, to refer
to all trees and large shrubs in the mangrove
swamp, and narrowly to refer to the
mangrove family of plants, the Rhizophoraceae, or
even more specifically just to mangrove trees of the
genus Rhizophora.

14. Ecology Of The Mangrove Forests.
Mangrove "swamps" are found in tropical and
subtropical tidal areas. Areas where mangal
occur include estuaries and marine shorelines.
The intertidal existence to which these trees
are adapted represents the major limitation to
the number of species able to thrive in their
habitat. High tide brings in salt water, and when
the tide recedes, solar evaporation of the
seawater in the soil leads to further increases in
salinity. The return of tide can flush out these
soils, bringing them back to salinity levels
comparable to that of seawater. At low tide,
organisms are also exposed to increases in
temperature and desiccation, and are then cooled
and flooded by the tide. Thus, in order for a
plant to survive in this environment, it must
tolerate broad ranges of salinity, temperature,
and moisture, as well as a number of other key
environmental factors. It is unsurprising,
perhaps, that only a select few species make up
the mangrove tree community.

15. About 110 species are considered "mangroves", in
the sense of being a tree that grows in such a
saline swamp, though only a few are from the
mangrove plant genus, Rhizophora. However, a given
mangrove swamp typically features only a small
number of tree species. It is not uncommon for a
mangrove forest in the Caribbean to feature only
three or four tree species. For comparison, the
tropical rainforest biome contains thousands of
tree species. That is not to say that mangrove
forests lack diversity. Though the trees
themselves are few in species, the ecosystem that
these trees create provides a home for a great
variety of other organisms.

16. World mangrove forest distribution

17. Threats and conservation
The remaining deciduous
woodland continues to
be cleared for grazing
land, while the pasture
that has been created is
itself threatened by
overgrazing and invasive
weeds. One large area of
natural forest remains
in southern Andhra

18. MONTANE FORESTS
Montane grasslands and scrublands is
a biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The
biome includes high altitude grasslands
and shrublands around the world.
Montane grasslands and shrublands located above
the tree line are commonly known as alpine tundra,
which occurs in mountain regions around the world.
Below the tree line are subalpine and montane
grasslands and shrublands. Stunted subalpine
forests are known as krummholz, and occur just
below the tree line, where harsh, windy conditions
and poor soils create dwarfed and twisted forests of
slow-growing trees.

19. THE THORN FORESTS AND SCRUBS
The Deccan thorn scrub
forests is a xeric
shrubland ecoregionof Indi
a and northernmost Sri
Lanka, a large area that was
once forest and home to
large numbers of elephants
and tigers.

21. There are about 17,500 taxa of
flowering plants from India. The Indian
Forest Act, 1927 helped to improve
protection of the natural habitat.

22. Forest
Cover In
India

23. Threatened Plant Species In India
Number of
Threat Category (IUCN)
species
Extinct 19
Extinct/Endangered 43
Endangered 149
Endangered/Vulnerable 2
Vulnerable 108
Rare 256
Indeterminate 719
Insufficiently Known 9
No information 1441
Not threatened 374
TOTAL 3120

24. Threatened Animal species
Number of species per group according to
IUCN threat categories (1994)

25. Flora Of
India
The Flora of India is one of the richest
of the world due to a wide range of
climate, topology and environments
in the country. It is thought there are
over 15000 species of flowering
plants in India, which account for 6
percent of the total plant species in
the world. and probably many more
species

26. Corbett National Park
Corbett National Park offers
different kinds of vegetation all
along its varied topography.....110
species of trees, 51 species of shrubs
and over 33 species of bamboo . In
addition, there are trees such as
palas (Butea monospermous, the
flame of the forest), which sets the
forest alight with the bright orange Corbett had the proud distinction of being
red color, offering a spectacular sight chosen as the venue for the inauguration
to park's visitors. Over 50 mammals, of Project Tiger in India. The rich
biodiversity of the Reserve is partly
580 birds and 25 reptile species attributed to the variety of habitat found
have been listed in the Corbett here. Due to the location of the Reserve
which is known as Heaven for Tigers. in the foothills of the Central Himalayas
both Himalayan and peninsular flora and
fauna is found in the Reserve.

27. Bandhavgarh National Park
Bandhavgarh Flora And Fauna
Bandhavgarh is very rich in floral diversity due to combination of
landforms and soil types, and the moist character of the region.
Forests types of Bandhavgarh can be identified as Moist Peninsular Sal
Forest and Southern tropical Moist Mixed Deciduous Forest and
Southern Tropical Dry Mixed Deciduous Forest. The reserve has over
600 species of flowering plants, 50 species of aquatic plants and 18
species of rare plants. Bandhavgarh National Parks has variety of tree
that one may comes across during visit

28. ‘India’s Natural Vegetation Has Undergone
Many Changes Due To Various Factors’
What Are They?
-The Growing Demand For
Cultivated Land.
-Development Of Industrial
And Mining.
-Urbanization
-Over Grazing Of Pastures

29. A Note On The Indian Flora.
-47,000 Plant Species-10th In World And 4th In Asia.
-15,000 Flowering Plants-6% Of The World’s Total.
-India Is Also Rich In Non-Flowering Plants Like Ferns, Algae And Fungi.
-Flora Ranges From One Found In Tropics To The Arctic
Region, Due To The Country’s Varied Relief ,Temperature And Rainfall
Conditions.
- Most Of Himalayan And Peninsular Regions Are Covered
With Indigenous Vegetation. These Species Are Found In The North Indian Plains
And The Thar Desert.
-Owning To Destruction Of Forests For Agriculture And Industrial Development ,
Several Plants Are Facing Existence.
-The Vegetal Cover Of India ,In large Parts, Is No More ‘natural’ In A Real Sense.
Except Some Inaccessible Regions Like The Thar Desert Or The Himalayas, The
Vegetation Has Been Destroyed In Some Places Or Replaced Or Degraded By
Human Occupancy.

30. Have You Ever Wondered ‘What
Influences The Kind Of vegetation
Found In The Mountains?’

31. -The Decrease In Temperature
With Increasing Altitude Leads To
The Corresponding Change In
Natural Vegetation. There Is A
Succession of Natural Vegetation
Belts In The Same Order As We
See From The Tropical To The
Tundra Region.

32. THE END