rainforest restoration - Ministry of Environment and Forests

1Among all forest types on Earth, the greatest diversityof living organisms is found in the tropical rainforest.Also called tropical wet evergreen forest, this forest typeoccurs in those parts around the equator with over 2,000millimetres of annual rainfall distributed over most of theyear. Dry periods with less than 60 millimetres rainfall occuronly for a few weeks at most. As a result, there is luxuriantvegetation and most trees remain green year-round.Rainforests are found in all three tropical regionsin the world: the Americas, Africa, and Asia. The famedrainforests of the Amazon and Orinoco basins, tracts alongthe Andes and Central America, and the forests of theAtlantic coast, comprise the rainforests of the Americas. InAfrica, the rainforests are found primarily in the Congo basinand West Africa, besides the highly threatened rainforestsin Madagascar. Second in extent only to the range ofAmazonian rainforests, the rainforests of tropical Asia maybe found in a great belt centred on the Malay Archipelago,but with tracts found as far west as parts of India and SriLanka all the way to the east in Papua New Guinea andnorthern Queensland in Australia and Pacific islands. WithinIndia, tropical rainforests are found in north-east India(along the Eastern Himalaya, in Assam, and the hill states),in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the Western Ghatsmountain chain along the west coast of India.Left: Canopy of a rainforest from the Western Ghats | P JeganathanAbove: Fruits of the endemic Baccaurea courtallensis, a mid-storey tree