Characteristics of Natural Vegetation

India is one of the most diverse countries and has a huge variety of animal and plant species, that comprises about 4-6 % of the world’s existing flora and fauna. It is said that India has about 47,000 species of plant diversity, 89,000 species of animals also including the creatures in the sea, and more than 15,000 species of flowering plants which are about 6% of the total flowering species present in the whole world. Follow up on the article to get more brief information regarding the natural vegetation of the country.

Natural Vegetation and their characteristics

The natural vegetation of an area can be easily defined as the plant diversity of that particular region and the multiple varieties of species that are present there, it is an endowment of nature as it grows by itself according to the climatic conditions. The vegetation mainly depends upon a few factors that are the sunlight, the soil, the topography, the precipitation, and at last the climate of that area.

There is a term which is “virgin vegetation” that refers to the plant communities that grow naturally without any intervention by the humans and have been left untouched/undisturbed from them for a long period. 

There are a few characteristics that affect the types of vegetation of the forests of India:

1. The Evergreen forests:  As these are found in the wet and warm regions of the country, they should receive rainfall above 200 centimetres which means they should have a shorter dry season. These types of areas are found in the western parts of India, north-eastern parts of India, and also in the plains of West Bengal and Odisha too.
2. The Deciduous Forests: these types of forests are mostly found in the region where the rainfall it’s between 100 centimetres to 200 centimetres. The trees present in this region shed their leaves every season. The trees like the Ebony, Sandalwood, the Arjun and the bamboo are examples of keys found in these forests. 
3. The Mangrove Forest: These forests are set to prevent drought-like situations in the areas where they are present which are mostly the areas at the delta of the rivers like Godavari, Ganga, or river Krishna. The trees like palm and coconut are beautifully present in the coastal strips of these areas.
4. The Mountainous Forests: these types of forests by their name can only be found in the region where there are mountains. For example, such as the regions of the Himalayas, I have seen that the variety of the plants and trees also increases after some time. It can be noticed that there is only grassland that appears after a certain height has been reached.
5. The Desert Vegetations: in the desert areas the rainfall is less than 50 centimetres, and the variety of plants are mostly the thorny bushes, the babul, or different types of cactuses. the plants that are present in that region have very long roots and thicker skin so that they can live in that extreme type of environment and store food and water for a longer period. These can be found in some parts of Gujarat and the thars desert of Rajasthan.

Conclusion

As has been mentioned above, there is a huge variety of plants and animals present in the country of India as this country has a variety of landscapes due to different climatic conditions faced by different parts of the country. Such as the north-eastern and the eastern part of the country receives a good amount of precipitation that leads to the growth of the evergreen rainfall forests in that region whereas the western part of the country receives very less rainfall which is why they have the plants with longer roots and thicker flash to survive in that climate.