Forests of India: Types and Distribution

India's forests vary as much as its climate. Tropical evergreen forests grow where rainfall is very heavy and the dry season is short, as in the Western Ghats, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and parts of the north-east, with tall trees, dense canopies and little light reaching the forest floor. Tropical deciduous forests, also called monsoon forests, are the most widespread type: they shed their leaves in the dry season and grow across much of central India, the northern plains margins and the Deccan. Thorn forests and scrub grow in dry regions such as Rajasthan and the Deccan interior, with thorny, drought-resistant trees, while montane forests change with altitude in the Himalayas, from subtropical broadleaf forests at low levels to coniferous forests and then alpine meadows higher up.

Two other forest types are ecologically important. Mangrove forests grow in tidal mudflats and deltas, especially the Sundarbans in West Bengal, the largest mangrove forest in the world, shared with Bangladesh. Mangroves protect coasts from storms, nurse fish and crabs, and trap sediment. Littoral and swamp forests grow along coasts and in waterlogged areas. Together, these types mean that forest policy cannot be one-size-fits-all: an evergreen forest, a sal forest in central India and a mangrove delta need different protection, different local uses and different restoration methods.

Forests in India are also a legal and livelihood category, not only a vegetation type. The Indian Forest Act, 1927, and later laws created reserved, protected and village forests with different levels of restriction, and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, requires central approval before forest land is diverted for non-forest use. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, known as the Forest Rights Act, recognises the rights of forest-dwelling communities over land and forest produce. Tensions between conservation, mining, infrastructure and community rights are therefore built into forest governance.

For civil studies, forests link climate, water, biodiversity and justice. They store carbon, regulate stream flow, shelter wildlife including tigers and elephants, and supply fuel, fodder, timber and non-timber produce to millions of people. Forest cover figures are published by the Forest Survey of India, but cover alone does not measure forest quality: a plantation is not the same as a natural forest. A careful answer distinguishes area, density, biodiversity and rights, and asks whose forest it is and who decides its future.