Forest is one of the most important national resources of India. It plays an important role in environment and in economy of our country.
It provides various good; services and it also maintains life support system, which is needed for human life.
It regularly changes environment consists of trees, shrubs, vegetation together with wild animals.
Image Source: fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MEDIA/stelprdb5202016.jpg
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Forest resources are very useful for the following purposes:
1. For economic development of country
2. Industrial growth
3. Pollution prevention
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4. Soil conservation
5. Creating rains
6. Fulfilling social needs
7. Building construction
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The total number of forest resources in our country (in 1999) has been estimated to be 637292 sq. km. This is 19.39% of total geographical area of the country.
6 Types of Forest
1. Moist tropical forest
2. Dry tropical forest.
3. Montane sub-tropical.
4. Sub-alpine
5. Alpine shrub
(1) Moist Tropical Forest
1. Tropical wet evergreen forest such as western ghat.
2. Tropical semi-evergreen forest such as in lower hills and of Western Ghat.
3. Tropical moist deciduous forest such as in Eastern Ghat e.g. Dehradoon and Mahabaleshwar.
4. Littoral and swamp forest such as in Bengal Delta, Sundarban and Andaman.
(2) Dry Tropical Forest
1. Tropical dry deciduous forest such as in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
2. Tropical thorn forest such as in Delhi, Punjab and Gujarat.
3. Tropical dry evergreen forest such as in Eastern Ghats.
(3) Montane Sub-tropical Forest
1. Sub-tropical broad forest such as in Nilgiris and Meghalaya.
2. Sub-tropical pure forest such as in Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh.
3. Sub-tropical evergreen forest such as in foothills of Himalayas.
(4) Montane Temperate Forests
1. Nilgiri and hills of Tamil Nadu are known as Montane with Temperate forest.
2. Himalayan wet temperate forests are in Himachal Pradesh and Assam.
3. Himalyas dry temperate forests are in North-west Kashmir.
4. In Sikkim and Laddakh, there is sub-alpine forest.
(5) Alpine Scrubs Forest
1. Moist alpine scrub forests are found in high Himalayas.
2. Dry alpine scrub forests are found in Sikkim.
Swamp Forest:
Swamp forests are those which comprise of evergreen species. In wet and marshy areas and along sea coast, they are found.
Montane Forest:
These are evergreen dense forest. They are found in high rainfall areas.
Temperate Forest:
Temperate forests are those which have broad leaved deciduous trees which shed their leaves in ‘fall season’ e.g. leech oak, willow (Salix) etc.
Alpine Forest:
These are known as evergreen forest and they are found at high altitude in Himalayas.
Tropical Savannah:
It contains draught resistant trees.