Here is an easy activity for you. Collect a map of the ‘Rainforests of the World’ and lay it on your table. (If you don’t get one, you can search online as well). Observe closely. What do you see?
The entire Asian continent appears colourless, as if it was barren. But what of India and other south-eastern countries? Do you see splashes of green here and there? The bright splashes of green that define the landscape of India and some other areas in the region are actually tropical rainforests!
India is one of the 12 mega-biodiversity nations in the world, thanks to its species richness and endemism. The rainforests found in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Eastern Himalayas, and the Western Ghats are like a painter’s canvas, strewn with blue streaks of major river systems, fertile, rich red soil, and multi-coloured strokes of indigenous cultural richness!
The Indian rainforests are like living laboratories. The complexities of the various ecological, biological and evolutionary processes that happen in these natural workshops make it the most intricately patterned ecosystem on the Earth! These rainforests, be they of the Eastern Himalayas or of the Western Ghats, are strikingly different from each other in characteristics.
Despite these differences however, over 80 per cent of the Country’s endemic flora and fauna are found in these rainforests.
Picture Credit : Google
