India has high biodiversity with over 47,000 plant and 89,600 animal species. Its natural vegetation includes tropical and dry deciduous forests, thorn forests, mangrove forests, and montane forests. Vegetation depends on factors like soil, temperature, sunlight, and precipitation. India's ecosystems support diverse wildlife including tigers, lions, elephants, rhinos, and over 2,000 bird species. The government has established 14 biosphere reserves, 89 national parks, 49 wildlife sanctuaries, and projects like Project Tiger to protect India's natural heritage and conserve its ecosystems and wildlife.

1. NATURAL VEGETATION AND WILDLIFE
MADE BY:-TANISHQ CHAWDA

2. CHAPTER OUTLINE
•Factors Which Affects Diversity Of
Flora and Fauna
•Ecosystem and Biome
•Types and Vegetation
•Wildlife
•Biosphere Reserves

3. INTRODUCTION
•India is one of the twelve mega bio-
diversity countries of the world.
•With about 47,000 plants and species
India occupies tenth place in the world
and fourth in Asia in plant diversity
•There are about 15,000 flowering plants
in India which account for 6% in the
world’s total numbers of flowering plants

4. •The country has many non-flowering
plants such as ferns, algae and fungi.
•India also has 89,600 species of animals
as well as rich variety of fish in its fresh
marine waters.

5. NATURAL VEGETATION
Refers to plant community which has
grown naturally without humid aid and has
been left undistributed by humans for along
time. This is termed virgin vegetation.
Thus, cultivation crops and fruits, orchards
are a part of vegetation but not natural
vegetation. India’s
Natural vegetation has undergone many
changes due to several factors such as the
growing demand for cultivation land,
development of industries and mining,
urbanization and over-grazing pastures.

7. FACTORS WHICH AFFECT
DIVERSITY OF FLORA AND FAUNA
•Land: Land affects the natural vegetation
directly and indirectly. The nature of land
influences the type of vegetation. The
fertile level is generally develop to
agriculture. The undulating and rough
terrains are areas where grassland and
woodlands develop and give shelter to a
variety of wild life.

8. Soil: Difference types of soil provide basis
for different types of the desert support
cactus and thorny bushes while wet,
marshy, deltaic soil support mangroves
and deltaic vegetations. The hill slopes
with some depth of soil have conical trees

9. Temperature: The character and extent of
vegetations are mainly determine by
temperature along humidity in the air
precipitation and soil. On the slopes of the
Himalayas and the hills peninsula above the
height 915 meters, low temperature affects the
types of vegetation and its growth.
Temperature changes it from tropical to
subtropical, temperature alpine.

10. Sunlight: The variation in sunlight
received at different places is due to
difference in latitude, altitude, season
and duration of the day. Adequate
summer light in summer causes in
trees to grow faster.

11. Precipitation: Precipitation determines the density of
vegetation. Area of heavy rainfall have more density
vegetations as compared to other area of less rainfall.
Importance of forest for human life: Forest renewable
resources and play a measure role in enhancing the
quality of environment. They modified local climate,
control soil erosion, regulate stream flow, support a
variety of industries, provide livelihood for many
communities and offer panoramic or scenic view for
recreation. It controls wind force and temperature and
causes rainfall. It provide humus to the soil shelter to
the wildlife.

12. ECOSYSTEM AND BIOME
Ecosystem: It is an integrated unit
consisting of the community of living
organism and the physical environment in a
particular area. Plants occur in distinct
groups of communities in areas having
similar climatic conditions. The nature of the
plants in an area, to a large extent,
determines the animal life in that area.

13. BIOME
A very large ecosystem on land having
distinct, determines the animal’s life is
called a biome. Biomes include both flora
and fauna but it is mainly the plant
formations which are used as the basis of
their grouping. On the basis of the order
availability of soil, water and heat the
world is divided into five principle biomes:
(i) Forest (ii) Savanna (iii)
Grassland
(iv) Desert (v) Tundra

15. TYPES OF VEGETATION
(a) Tropical Evergreen
• They are at their best in areas having more
than 200 cm of rainfall with a short dry
season.
• In these forest yield hard wood trees.
• These forest are found in rainy parts of
Western Ghats, Assam, West Bengal,
Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar
Islands.
• Ebony, Mahogany, Rosewood, Rubber and
Cinchona are some of the important trees.
• In these forest large number of plant
species is found at one place. It creates
difficulty in their commercial exploitation.

16. •Elephant, Monkey, Lemur and Deer are some
common animals found in these forest.

18. (b) TROPICAL DECIDUOUS FORESTS
These are the most widespread forests of India. They
are also called the monsoon forests and region
receiving rainfall between 200cm and 70cm. Trees of
this forest-type shed their leaves for about six to eight
weeks in dry summer On the basis of the availability of
water, these forests are further divided into:-
MOIST DECIDOUS:-
•These forests are found in the areas of 100cm &
200cm rainfall.
•Due to a longer dry season, the trees shed their leaves
during the dry season.
•Shisham, Bamboos, Sandalwood, Khair, Arjun, Mulberry
and Sal are common trees found in these forest.
•These forest cover a vast area of the country. North-
eastern states, along the foot hills of Himalayas,
Jharkhand, West Orissa and Chhattisgarh on the
Eastern slopes of the Western Ghats.

20. DRY DECIDUOUS
•These are found in areas having rainfall
between 70cm to 100cm
•These are found in the rainier part of the
peninsular plateau and the plains of Bihar
and UP.
• These are open stretches in the Teak,
Sal, Peepal, Neem grow
•Most of these forests have been cleared
for cultivation
•In these forests, the common animals
found are lion, tiger, pig, deer and
elephant. A huge variety of birds, Lizards,
snakes, and also found here.

22. THE THORNS FORESTS AND SCRUBS
•Tropical thorn forests occur in the areas
which receive less than 70cm. These consists
of a variety of grasses and shrubs. In includes
semi-area of south west Punjab, Haryana,
Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar
Pradesh. In these forests, plant remain leafless
for most part of the year and give an
expression of shrub vegetation. Important
species found are babul, khjeri, palas etc.

24. MONTANE FOREST
In mountain area, the decrease in
temperature with increasing altitude lead to
the corresponding change in the natural
vegetation:
•The wet temperate types of forest are found
between a height of 1000m &
2000m.Evergreen board-leaf trees such as
oaks and chestnuts predominate.
•Between 1500m & 3000m, temperature
forest containing coniferous trees like pinc,
deodar, silver fir, spruce and cedar, are found.
These forests cover mostly the southern
slopes of the Himalayas, places having high
altitude in southern and north-east India. At
higher elevations, temperate grassland are
vegetation.

25. •At high altitudes, generally more than
3600meters above the sea-level
temperate forest and grassland give way
to the Alpine vegetation. Silver fir, pines
and birches are the common trees.
Above Alpine vegetation Alpine grassland
are found. These are extensively for
grazing by nomadic tribes like the Gujjars
and the Bakarwals. At higher altitudes,
mosses and lichens from part of tundra
vegetation.

26. MANGROVE FORESTS
The mangrove tidal forests are found in
the areas of coasts influenced by tides
having accumulated mud and silt.
Dense mangroves are the common
varieties with roots of the plants
submerged under water. The forest are
found in the delta of the Ganga , the
Mahanadi, the Krishna, the Godavari
and the Kaveri. In the Ganga-
Brahamaputra delta, sundari trees are
found, which provide durable hard
timber. Royal Bengal Tiger is the
famous animal in these forests. Turtles,
crocodiles, gharials and snakes are
also found in these forests.
.

28. WILDLIFE
India is the only country in the world
that has both tigers and lion. It has
approximately 90,000 animal species.
The country has about 2,000 species of
birds. They constitute 13% of the
world’s total. There are 2,546 species
of fish, which account for nearly 12% of
the world’s stock. It also shares
between 5 and 8 per cent of the world’s
amphibians, reptiles and mammals.

29. • Elephants are found in the hot wet
forests of Assam, Karnataka and Kerala.
• One-horned rhinoceroses live in swampy
and marshy lands of Assam and West
Bengal.
• Rann of Kachchh is habitat of wild ass
and camels are found in Thar desert.
• Indian bison, nilgai (blue bull),
chousingha (four horned antelope), gazel
and different species of deer are some
other animals found in India.
• In the rivers, lakes and coastal areas,
turtles, crocodiles and gharials are found.

30. Birds like Peacocks, pheasants, ducks,
parakeets, cranes and pigeons are some
of the birds inhabiting the forests and
wetlands of the country.
• India is the only country in the world
that has both tigers and lions. Gir forest
in Gujarat is the natural habitat of
lion whereas Tigers are found in the
forests of Madhya Pradesh, the
Sundarbans of West Bengal and the
Himalayan region.

32. WILDLIFE CONSERVATION
IN INDIA
•Fourteen biosphere reserves have been set up in the country to
protect flora and fauna. Four out of these, the Sunderbans in the
West Bengal, Nanda Devi in Uttaranchal, the Gulf of Mannar in Tamil
Nadu and the Nilgiris (Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) have been
included in the world.
• Project Tiger, Project Rhino, Project Great Indian Bustard and
many other eco-developmental projects have been introduced.
•89 National Parks, 49 Wildlife sanctuaries and Zoological gardens
are set up to take care of Natural heritage.
•All of us must realise the importance of the natural ecosystem for
our own survival. It is possible if indiscriminate destruction of
natural environment
is put to an immediate end.
•Financial and technical assistance is provided to many Botanical
Gardens by the
government since 1992.

33. Fourteen Bio-reserves
• Sunderbans • Simlipal
• Gulf of Mannar • Dihang-Dibang
• The Nilgiris • Dibru Saikhowa
• Nanda Devi • Agasthyamalai
• Nokrek • Kanchenjunga
• Great Nicobar • Pachmari
• Manas • Achanakmar-Amarkantak