Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Plants
India was once almost entirely covered in forest; now its total forest cover is estimated at
around 20%. Despite widespread clearing of native habitats, the country still boasts 49,219
plant species, of which some 5200 are endemic. Species on the southern peninsula largely
show Malaysian ancestry.
Outside of mountain forests found in the Himalaya, nearly all the lowland forests of In-
dia are subtypes of tropical forest, with native sal forests forming the mainstay of the tim-
ber industry. Some of these tropical forests are true rainforest, staying green year-round,
such as in the Western Ghats and in the Northeast States, but most forests are deciduous,
for example, the teak forests of central India, and can look surprisingly dusty and forlorn in
the dry season. Fortunately, the leaf fall and dry vegetation makes wildlife viewing easier
in otherwise dense woodlands.
High-value trees such as Indian rosewood
,
Malabar kino and teak have been virtually
cleared from the Western Ghats, and sandalwood is endangered across India due to illegal
logging for the incense and wood-carving industries. A bigger threat on forested lands is
firewood harvesting, often carried out by landless peasants who squat on gazetted govern-
ment land.
Several trees have significant religious value in India, including the silk-cotton tree, a
huge tree with spiny bark and large red flowers under which Pitamaha (Brahma), the creat-
or of the world, sat after his labours. Two well-known figs, the banyan and peepal, grow to
immense size by dangling roots from their branches and fusing into massive multitrunked
jungles of trunks and stems - one giant is nearly 200m across. It is said that Buddha
achieved enlightenment while sitting under a peepal (also known as the Bodhi tree).
