Friday, 29 July 2016

Forest Types of North East India


Over the century, Northeastern India has gained worldwide attention for its diverse and extensive forest cover. Forests of this region are unique, both in terms of their structure and species composition.

Climate, physiography and soils of the region have provided favorable conditions for luxuriant growth of natural vegetation. As the physiography varies from low lying swamps and marshes, to high mountain ridges lying above 6000 m, the soils vary from sand, silt and loam to laterite. The climate of the region seems to have the most telling effect on the vegetation type. The region has one of the heaviest rain falls in the world. Although the average annual rainfall of the region is about 250 cm it varies from place to place. The heavy rainfall which comes from May to September, keeps the relative humidity of the area very high throughout the year. Temperature variation is low, remaining normally between 12 0 C and 35 0 C except in the high hills. These favorable climatic conditions, augmented by fertility of the soils provide for the astounding diversity of flora and fauna characteristic of the region.

Champion and Seth (1968) distinguished 51 types of forests in North East India under 13 broad categories as shown below

I. Tropical Wet Evergreen Forests
1.  Assam valley tropical wet evergreen forest
2.  Upper Assam valley tropical evergreen forest
3.  Cachar tropical evergreen forest
4.  Cane brakes
5.  Wet bamboo brakes
6.  Pioneer Euphorbiaceous scrub

II. Tropical Semi-Evergreen Forests
7.  Assam valley semi-evergreen forest
8.  Sub-Himalayan high alluvial semi-evergreen forest
9.  Syzgium parkland
10. Eastern alluvial secondary semi-evergreen forest
11. Sub-Himalayan secondary wet mixed forest
12. Cachar semi-evergreen forest
13. Moist bamboo brakes
14. Secondary moist bamboo brakes

III. Tropical Moist Deciduous Forests
15. Very moist sal forest
16. Moist plains sal forest
17. Moist sal savannah
18. East Himalayan moist mixed deciduous forest
19. Northern secondary moist mixed deciduous forest
20. Secondary Euphorbiaceous scrub
21. Low alluvial savannah woodland
22. Eastern hollock forest

IV. Littoral and swamp Forests
23. Sub-montane hill valley swamp forest
24. Creeper swamp forest
25. Tropical seasonal swamp forest
26. Eastern wet alluvial grassland
27. Riparian fringing forest

V. Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests
28. Khair-sissu forest

VI. Subtropical Broad-leaved Hill Forests
29. Khasi sub-tropical hill forest
30. Assam sub-tropical hill savannah woodland

VII. Subtropical Pine Forests
31. Assam sub-tropical pine forest
32. Assam sub-tropical pine savannah

VIII. Montane Wet Temperate Forests
33. East Himalayan wet temperate forest
34. Naga hills wet temperate forest

IX. Himalayan Moist Temperate Forests
35. East Himalayan moist temperate forest
36. Cypress forest
37. Montane bamboo brakes
38. Alder forest
39. Low level blue pine forest

X. Himalayan Dry Temperate Forests
40. East Himalayan dry temperate coniferous forest
41. Larch forest
42. East Himalayan dry juniper/birch forest
43. East Himalayan dry juniper/birch forest

XI. Sub-Alpine Forests
44. East Himalayan sub-alpine birch/fir forest
45. Sub-alpine blue pine forest
46. Sub-alpine pasture

XII. Moist Alpine Scrub
47. Birch/Rhododendron scrub
48. Deciduous alpine scrub
49. Dwarf Rhododendron scrub

XIII. Dry Alpine Scrub
50. Dry alpine scrub
51. Dwarf juniper scrub


1 comment:

  1. 11 Specialties of North East India - by Newsondot.com
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAI4lKJfa1U

    ReplyDelete