Northern dry deciduous forests
ecoregion of India
The Northern dry deciduous forests, presently known as the North Deccan dry deciduous forests, is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion of east-central India.
Geography
It covers an area of 58,200 square kilometers (22,500 sq mi), mostly in western Odisha state, with portions in neighboring Chhattisgarh. The region extends northeast–southwest in the dry western rain shadow of the Eastern Ghats range, which block the moisture-laden monsoon winds from the Bay of Bengal to the east. It is surrounded by the more humid Eastern Highlands moist deciduous forests ecoregion.
The ecoregion lies mostly in the middle basin of the Mahanadi River and its tributary the Tel. The southern portion of the ecoregion lies in the upper basin of the Indravati River, a tributary of the Godavari.
Flora
The original vegetation was a multi-storied forest of mostly dry-season deciduous trees, dominated by sal (Shorea robusta). Little of the original forest remains. Teak (Tectona grandis), which favors drier conditions, is more common in the remaining forests. Frequent fires, intensive grazing, and over-harvesting trees for firewood and fodder has reduced other areas to open scrubland or savanna.
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This entry incorporates text from “Northern dry deciduous forests” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.