rainforest restoration - Ministry of Environment and Forests

ainforest restoration in the western ghats: an overview21An ancient hill range, running along the west coast of Indiafor 1,600 kilometres from the southern tip of the IndianPeninsula to the River Tapti in the North, the Western Ghatsis a global biodiversity hotspot along with Sri Lanka.The Western Ghats has a tropical climate thatshows pronounced variation along north–south, east–west, and altitudinal gradients. In general, the vegetationbecomes drier as one progresses from west to east (rainshadow) across the hills, more seasonal as one goes fromsouth to north, and cooler and wetter as one ascendsthe hills. Thus, an impressive range of natural vegetationtypes is found in the Western Ghats from tropical dry thornand deciduous forests to moist deciduous forests, semievergreen,and wet evergreen forests in progressivelywetter areas. There are also unique types such as theMyristica swamps, the bamboo and cane brakes, and themontane grasslands and shola forests.In the southern Western Ghats, the Anamalai hillsregion is particularly special as it contains the entire rangeof natural vegetation types that one may encounter in thesouthern Western Ghats from dry thorn to shola forest,and reed brakes to grasslands. The tropical wet evergreenforests of the Western Ghats, are broadly classified intolow- (mostly below < 700 m), medium- (700–1,400 m), andhigh-elevation (>1,400 m) types. In planning ecologicalrestoration, it is important to identify the correct typeof natural vegetation in the region and know theircharacteristic plant and animal species.Tropical rainforests of the Western GhatsAmong these vegetation types, the wet evergreen forestsor rainforests are special. These rainforests occur all alongGhats from Maharashtra to Kerala. Some of the best tractsare found in the southern Western Ghats, the region south ofthe Palghat gap (a 40 km-wide break in the mountain range)that contains some of the highest peaks and vast stretchesof mature evergreen forests. These forests also containmuch of the plant and animal diversity, particularly endemicspecies (species not found anywhere else in the world).Left: An Elaeocarpus serratus tree towers into the canopy of a rainforest in southern India | Kalyan VarmaAbove: The plants of the rainforest are exquisitely adapted in morphology and ecology to life in the tropical environment