Tropical thorn forest in India
It is a type of desert forest type which has scrub-like vegetation. Their trees and plant are armed with thorns and spines.
These forests are found in the region where the rainfall is less than 50cm annually. The tree and plants in these regions have long roots that penetrate deep into the soil to get water from the deep.
These forests are in South West Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.
Trees found in thorn forest in India
Examples are Babool, ber and wild date palm, Khair, neem, Khejri, palas, etc. Some of these plants are used as charcoal for cooking and also fodder from the forest acts as an important source of food for cattle.
Tussocky grass grows up to a height of 2m.
The leaves are mostly thick and small to minimize evaporation and stems are succulent to conserve water.
The animals found here are rats, rabbits, wolf, tiger, lion, wild ass, horses, camel, and mice
Tropical thorn forest in India is grouped into two based on their regions. The Northern Tropical Thorn forest and Southern Tropical Thorn Forest.
Northern Tropical Thorn Forest
These forests are found in semi-arid regions of UP, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Punjab.
These areas have rainfall of 20 to 70 cm annually. During the rainy days, rainfall will be 15 to 40 cm.
Northern Tropical Thorn Forest are grouped as Desert thorn forest, ravine thorn forest, and Runn thorn forest.
Desert thorn examples are Prosopis spicigera, Salvadora spp, etc. Ravine thorn plant species are Acacia nilitica etc and the Runn thorn forest plant species examples are Salvadora, Tamarix, Calotropis, etc.
Southern Tropical Thorn Forest
These forests were found in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.
The average temperature here is 24 to 28 C. The annual rainfall ranges from 45 to 95 cm.
Plant species found in these forests are Acacia Nilotica, A.leucopholea, A.catechu, Prosopis spp, etc.
Peculier characteristics found in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Tropical Thorn Forest are the formation of an umbrella-shaped crown example Acacia planifrons.