CLASS 9 GEOGRAPHY | Important Points & Short notes | Chapter: 5 Natural Vegetation And Wild Life

 CLASS 9 GEOGRAPHY | Important Points & Short notes | Chapter: 5 Natural Vegetation And Wild Life

Chapter: 5 Natural Vegetation And Wild Life

1. India is one of the 12 mega bio-diversity countries of the world with about 47,000 plant species. India occupies 10th place in the world and 4th in Asia in plant diversity. There are about 15,000 flowering plants in India which account for 6 per cent in the world’s total number of flowering plants. The country has many non-flowering plants such as ferns, algae and fungi. India also has approximately 90,000 species of animals as well as a rich variety of fish in its fresh and marine waters.

2. Natural vegetation refers to a plant community which has grown naturally without human aid and has been undisturbed by human is known as virgin vegetation. The term Flora is used to denote plants. Fauna means species of animals. 

3. This huge diversity in flora and fauna kingdom is due to following factors:

A. RELIEF

(a) Land: Land affects the natural vegetation directly and indirectly. The undulating and rough terrains are areas where grassland and woodlands develop and give shelter to a variety of wild life.

(b) Soil: The soils also vary over space. Sandy soils of the desert support cactus and thorny bushes while wet, marshy, deltaic soils support mangroves and deltaic vegetation and the hill slopes with some depth of soil have conical tree.

4. B. CLIMATE

(a)  Temperature:  The fall in the temperature affects the types of vegetation and its growth, and changes it from tropical to subtropical temperate and alpine vegetation.

(b) Photoperiod (Sunlight): Duration of sunlight at different places is because of latitude, altitude. Due to longer duration of sunlight, trees grow faster in summer.

(c) Precipitation: Areas of heavy rainfall have more dense vegetation as compared to less rainfall areas. Forest modify local climate, control soil erosion, regular main stream flow, provide livelihood for many community. It controls wind force and temperature temperature and cause rainfall. . Except in some inaccessible regions like the Himalayas, the hilly region of central India and the marusthali, the vegetation of most of the areas has been modified at some places, or replaced or degraded by human occupancy

5. ECOSYSTEM: All the plants and animals in an area are interdependent and interrelated to each other in their physical environment, thus forming an ecosystem. Human beings are also part of ecosystem they utilize the vegetation and wildlife and their greed leads to over utilization of these resources. The cut the trees and kill the animals due to this some of plants and animals are on a verge of extinction.

6. TYPES OF VEGETATION

(A) Topical Evergreen Forests- These forests are restricted to heavy rainfall areas of the Western Ghats and the island groups of Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar, upper parts of Assam and Tamil Nadu coast. The animals found in these forests are elephants, monkey, lemur and deer. The one horned rhinoceros are found in the jungles of Assam.

(B) Tropical Deciduous Forests- These forest are spread on a region receiving rainfall between 200 cm and 70 cm. on the basis of availability of water these forest are further divided into  moist and dry deciduous. These forests are found mostly in the eastern part of the country – northeastern states, along the foothills of the Himalayas, Jharkhand, West Orissa and Chhattisgarh, and on the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats and the plains of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.  The animals found are lion, tiger, pig, deer and elephant. A huge variety of birds, lizards, snakes, and tortoises are also found here. 

(C) The Thorn forest and Scrubs- In this forest trees are scattered and have long roots deep into soil in order to get moisture. These forests give way to thorn forests and scrubs in arid areas. These forest are mainly found  north-western part of the country including semi-arid areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

7. (D) Montane Forests - The wet temperate type of forests are found between a height of 1000 and 2000 metres. These forests cover mostly the southern slopes of the Himalayas, places having high altitude in southern and north-east India. The animals found are Kashmir stag, spotted dear, wild sheep, jack rabbit, Tibetan antelope, yak, snow leopard, squirrels, Shaggy horn wild ibex, bear and rare red panda, sheep and goats with thick hair.

(E) Mangrove Forest- The mangrove tidal forests are found in the areas of coasts influenced by tides. Mud and silt get accumutated on such coasts. Dense mangroves are the common varieties with roots of the plants submerged under water. Royal Bengal Tiger is the famous animal and turtles, crocodiles, gharials and snakes are found in these forests. 

8. WILD LIFE - India is the only country in he world that has both tigers and Lions. The natural habitat Indian lions is the Gir forest in Gujarat and Tigers are found in the forest of M.P, and the Sunderbans of W.B. Leopards too members od cat family. 

In rivers, lakes and coastal areas, turtles, crocodiles and gharials are found. Birds life in India is colorful. Peacock, pheasant, ducks and Pigeons are some of the birds. 

The major threat to nature are hunting by greedy hunters to commercial purposes. Pollution due to industrial waste  chemical and reckless cutting of forests to bring land under cultivation and inhabitation are also responsible for the imbalance. 

To protect the flora and fauna of the country government has taken many steps:

(a) 14 biosphere reserves have been set up in the country to protect flora and fauna.

(b)) Financial and technical assistance is provided to many Botanical Gardens by the government since 1992.

(c) Project Tiger, Project Rhino, Project Great Indian Bustard and many other eco developmental projects have been introduced.

(d) 89 National Parks, 490 Wildlife sanctuaries and Zoological gardens are set up to take care of Natural heritage.