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South Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests

Ecoregion in India

Summary

Ecoregion in India

Field	Value
name	South Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests
image	Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary 9.JPG
caption	Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary
map	Ecoregion IM0209.png
map_caption	Ecoregion territory (in purple)
ecozone	Indomalayan
biome	tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests
border1	Deccan thorn scrub forests
border2	South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests
area	81925
country	India
state1	Karnataka
state2	Tamil Nadu
region_type	States
conservation	critical/endangered
protected	7,597 km2 (9
protected_ref	)

The South Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests is a tropical dry forest ecoregion in southern India. The ecoregion lies in the southernmost portion of the Deccan Plateau, and includes the southernmost portion of the Eastern Ghats.

The ecoregion lies in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats, and receives most of its rainfall with the June–September southwest monsoon. It is characterized by tall trees that drop their leaves during the dry winter and spring months. Much of the forest has been degraded through over-use, and thorn forests and shrub thickets are common. To the north and east, the dry deciduous forests transition to the drier Deccan thorn scrub forests.

Flora

These forests have three stories, with an upper canopy at 15 -, an understory at 10 -, and undergrowth at 3 -. Trees are draped in lianas in denser, mature forests. The vegetation is characterized by Albizia amara, Anogeissus latifolia, Boswellia serrata, Cassia fistula, Chloroxylon swietenia, Dalbergia latifolia, Diospyros montana, Hardwickia binata, Pterocarpus marsupium, Senegalia catechu, Shorea talura, Sterospermum personatum, Terminalia bellirica, Terminalia paniculata, and Terminalia elliptica. Sal found here is used for railway sleepers and house construction while teak, a durable timber, is used for ship building and furniture. Sandalwood (Santalum album) is used for perfume and semal for toys.

Fauna

The ecoregion is home to 75 mammal species. Threatened species include the Indian elephant (Elephas maximus), wild dog (Cuon alpinus), sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), chousingha (Tetracerus quadricornis), gaur (Bos gaurus), and grizzled giant squirrel (Ratufa macruora). Salim Ali's fruit bat (Latidens salimalii) is critically endangered, and is near-endemic. 260 species of birds live in the eco-region,such as the rufous babbler (Turdoides subrufus) and yellow-throated bulbul (Pycnonotus xantholaemus). The threatened great Indian bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) and lesser florican (Eupodotis indica) inhabit the eco-region.

Protected areas

Bannerghatta National Park, Karnataka 140 km2
Biligiriranga Swamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka 290 km2
Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka 500 km2
Melkote Temple Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka 50 km2
Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary, Karnataka 20 km2
Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu 1411.6 km2
Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu 70 km2
Cauvery North Wildlife Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu

References

Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545; Supplemental material 2 table S1b. [https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix014]
{{WWF ecoregion
(2002). "Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment". Island Press.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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