Natural Resources (NATUAL RESOURCES OF INDIA)

A natural resource may be physical resource like land , water, soils and mineral or biological resource like vegetation, wildlife and fisheries. Natural resources can also be classified as inexhaustible like air, water or exhaustible like soil, forest, fresh water, minerals, fossil fuels, etc. Exhaustible resources may be renewable like water, forest etc. or non-renewable like fossil fuels (coal and petroleum).

Natural Vegetation 

Natural vegetation includes that part of the plant life which grows in wild without human aid and adapts to the constraints of natural environment in size, structures and the requirements. A considerable part of our natural vegetation has been replaced or destroyed as a result of human habitation of the land. The cultivated crops and fruits orchards forms of vegetation, but not natural vegetation.

Natural vegetation adapts itself to the natural environment, altitude, weather and climatic factors mainly sunshine and precipitation so, differs widely. These factors determine which plant can flourish in a specific habitat. India being a land of great natural vegetation, has a great variety of natural vegetation. India is one of the twelve mega bio-diversity countries of the world about 47000 plant species, India occupies tenth place in the world in terms biodiversity and fourth in Asian plant diversity. There are about 15000 flowering plants in India which account for 6%  in the world’s total number of flowering plants.

The country has many non-flowering plants such as ferns, algae and fungi. This wide variety of natural vegetation is due to the following factors:

Land and Soil : The nature of land influences the type of vegetation. The fertile land is generally devoted to agriculture. The wavy and rough terrains are areas where grasslands and woodlands develop. Different types of soil provide basis for different types of vegetation. The hill slopes with some depth of soil have conical trees.

Temperature: The character and extent of vegetation are also determined by temperature along with  humidity humidity in the air, rainfall and soil. On the slope of the Himalayas and hills of peninsula above the height 915 m, the fall in the temperature affects the types of vegetation and its growth and changes it from tropical to sub-tropical temperate and alpine vegetation.

Rainfall: Areas of heavy rainfall have more sense vegetation as compared to other areas or less rainfall. That’s why the Western slopes of the Western Ghats covered with thick forests and not the Eastern slopes.

Sunlight: The variation in duration of sunlight at different places is due to differences in altitude, latitude, sunlight, trees grow more faster in summer. The southern slopes of Himalaya get more sunlight than its Northern slopes. So, the Southern slopes are covered with thick vegetation as compared to the Northern slopes.

TYPES OF VEGETATION

(NATUAL RESOURCES OF INDIA)

The vegetation of India has been classified differently but the classification made by HG Champion is widely accepted. He developed his classification in 1936. It was reclassified for present day India by Champion and Seth in 1968. This classification is based on structure physiography and floristic nature of the plant. They have recognized 16 major types which have been subdivided into 221 minor types.

The sixteen types have been regrouped into the following types:

1.  Tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen forests
2. Tropical deciduous forest
3. Tropical grasslands and scrubs
4. Wetlands littoral and swamp forests
5. Montane forest

1. Tropical Evergreen Forests

It is also known as rain forests. They are of two types i.e. the wet evergreen and the semi-evergreen forests. They cover 49% of the total natural vegetation area. They generally occur in warm and humid areas which have rainfall between 130 cm and 250 cm and temperature ranging from 22°C to 27ºC. They are mainly found in the rainy tracts of the Western Ghats, Arabian sea coast line of peninsular India, the North-Eastern region of India and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, upper part of Assam and Tamil Nadu Coast.

2. Tropical Semi-Evergreen Forests

The semi-evergreen forest is found in less rainy parts of India and is more extensive than evergreen forest. It is partly because of human interference. The under growing climbers provide evergreen character to these forests.  Main species are white Cedar, hillock and kail.

3. Tropical Deciduous Forest

India tropical forest are also called the monsoon forests. They  are spread over regions which spread over regions receives rainfall of 70-200 cm. Trees of this forest type shed their leaves for about six to eight weeks in dry summer. This forest are further divided into Moist Deciduous Forest and Dry Deciduous forest.  Moist Deciduous Forest record rainfall between 100-200 cm. They are typical monsoon forest.

The moist deciduous types grows well in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, the North-Eastern states along the foothill of the Himalayas in Shiwalik, Western slopes of the Eastern Ghats of the Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The Dry Deciduous forest grows well in areas where the maximum temperature reaches 29°C to 35°C and the minimum varies from 18ºC to 23ºC. The species are found in Ganga plain, Central part of the peninsula and the Coimbatore plateau in Tamil Nadu.

4. Tropical Grasslands and Scrubs

These forests are found in areas with rainfall ranging from 30 to 60 cm. Here, the natural vegetation consists of a thorny forest and bushes. The relief is gentle and the soil is generally fertile. This type of vegetation is found in the Saurashtra in the south to Punjab Plains in the North i.e. Eastern Rajasthan, South-West Punjab, Western Haryana and Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, South-Western Karnataka and adjoining areas of Andhra Pradesh. Wild date palms grow in the valleys, khair, sissoo, pipal and babul grows.

5. Wetlands Littoral and Swamp Forests

India has wide variety of wetland habitats. About 70% of this comprises areas under paddy cultivation. The total area of wetland is 4.1 million hectares. Wetland of India grouped into following categories:

• The reservoirs of the Deccan plateau together with the lagoons and other wetlands of the  Southern-West coast.
• The vast saline expanses of Rajasthan, Gujarat and the Gulf of Kutch.
• The delta wetlands and lagoons of India’s East coast (Chilika Lake)
• The freshwater marshes of Gangetic plain.
• The floodplain of Brahmaputra: the marshes and swamps of the North-East India
• The lakes and rivers of the montane region of Kashmir and Ladakh
• In India, the mangrove forests constitutes almost 7% of the world’s mangrove forests.
• They are highly developed in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sundarbans of West Bengal

6. Montane Forests

In India, Montane forest can be classified into two types, the Northern montane forests and the peninsular montane forests. 

Northern Montane Forests

The Himalayan vegetation is classified into tropical, sub-tropical, temperate and alpine, mainly on the basis of altitude and rainfall. Local differences in relief and climate as well as exposure to sunlight and wind cause considerable vegetation in the composition of the vegetation within each zone. The vegetation grows up to the height of 1500 m this forest consists of  different species. From East to West rainfall decreased as altitude increases. The wet Sal thrives best at elevations of 920m, at 1370 m elevation dry Sal predominates. Temperate forests are found in altitude of 1500 and 3500 m.

Peninsular Montane Forests

In the mountainous areas, the change of climate at the higher altitudes leads to the corresponding change in the character of natural vegetation. The distinct region of the peninsula contain montane vegetation:

• The Western Ghats
• The Vindhyas
• The Nilgiri

Though, they are closer to the tropics and only 1500 m above mean sea level, vegetation is temperate in the higher regions and sub-tropical on the lower regions especially in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The temperate forests are called Sholas in the Nilgiri, Annamalai, Palni hills and Mahabalseswar plateau.

 Medicinal plants in India (

NATUAL RESOURCES OF INDIA)

India is famous for its herbs and spices from ancient times. The World Conservation Union’s Red List has named 352 medicinal plants of which 52 are critically threatened and 49 endangered. The commonly used medicinal plants in India are:

• Arjun The juice of leaves is a cure for an earache and also regulates blood pressure.
• Neem It has high antibiotic and antibacterial properties
• Kachnar This plant helps to cure asthma and ulcers
• Babool People use the leaves to cure eyesores. Its gum is used as a tonic
• Jamun The juice from this ripe fruit helps to prepare vinegar which is carminative and diuretic and has digestive properties. The powder of the seed helps in controlling diabetes.

India has about 17000-18000 species of flowering plants of which 6000-7000 are estimated to have medicinal usage in folk and documented systems of medicine, like Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy. Medicinal plants are not only a major resources base  for the traditional medicine and herbal industry but also provide livelihood and health security to a large segment of Indian population.