Natural Vegetation and Habitats

Tropical deciduous forests are widely known as Monsoon forests because they shed their leaves during the dry season to conserve water, which is a response to the monsoon climate.

Tropical evergreen forests are closed canopy forests growing within 28 degrees north or south of the equator. Since they receive more than 200 cm rainfall per year, therefore they are also known as rain-forests

Tropical evergreen forest,

• Mangrove forest comprises of small shrubs or trees that grown in coastal saline or brackish waters. These shrubs or trees can withstand high salinity conditions. One of the example is Sundari tree after which name Sundarbans was given to this forests.
  
• Mangrove forests of Sundarbans are largest mangrove forests of the world. Sundarbans are located in Ganga-Brahmaputra delta of west Bengal and Bangladesh.
  

• Tropical rain forests can be considered as hot and wet forests. Mean monthly temperatures exceed 18 °C and average annual rainfall is above 200 cms.
  
• Tropical rainforests exhibit high levels of biodiversity. Around 40% to 75% of all biotic species are indigenous to the rainforests.
  
• These forests are found in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Western Ghats. A part of these forests are also found in Odisha state.
  

Tropical Monsoon forests are located in the monsoon climate beyond the equatorial region between 10°C and 25°C  and North and South of the equator. The countries are along the coastal regions of Bangladesh, Myanmar, Southwestern Africa, Southeastern Brazil, Srilanka. 

Silver Fir is found in Montane Forests. Montane Forests have a succession of natural vegetation belts in the same order from the tropical to the Tundra region. Between 1500 and 3000 metres, temperature forests contains coniferous tress like pine, deodar, silver fir.

Coniferous forests are found in the regions near the equator and close to the tropics.  Coniferous forests are made up mainly of cone-bearing or coniferous tress. The leaves of these trees are either small and needle-like or scale-like and most stay green all year around(evergreen). All are softwoods and are able to survive cold temperatures and acidic soil. Hence the tress in the coniferous forests do not shed their leaves altogether. 

The Brown Mountain forest is located in East Gippsland, Victoria(Australia), and it is famous as it is notable for containing large tracts of old growth forest, including over fifty shining gum trees estimated to be over 300 years old.

The Sundarbans, which includes the Sajnekhali forest in the 24 Parganas district, is the largest mangrove forest in the world. The other locations listed are inland or mountainous regions.

The evergreen forests are normally found in areas which get more than 250 cms. of annual rainfall.

Teak is a characteristic tree of deciduous forests, not evergreen forests. Rosewood, mahogany, and bamboo are typical species found in tropical evergreen forests.