Forests may not be inhabited by human beings but they have major contributions in our lives. Aside from providing woods and various plants, the forest play a major role when it comes to the betterment of the weather and climate of the country. Every country in the world must have certain level of green areas for better climate otherwise the population faces serious trouble. Forest plays a major role the economy of South Asia. In this post I am going to write about the forests in seven South Asian countries:
Nepal:
Though Nepal is famous for the Himalayas and the Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, to the rest of the world, the country has forest that is rich in flora and fauna. Nepal contains a wide variety of forests such as tree less subalpin pasture, dense fir forests of the high valleys, oak and rhododendron woods of the middle hills and tall sal forests of the south. The tropical deciduous monsoon forest occupies the Terai plains and the broad flat valleys situated between hill ranges. Shorea robusta or the Sal tree is the dominant tree species in this region. The subtropical mixed evergreen forest is situated in the surrounding areas of Mahabharat Lekh, a east-west mountain range that is 1500 to 3,000 meters high across Nepal.Major tree species of this region are Castenopsis indica, Schima wallichi, Alnus nepalensis, Acer oblongum and various species of oak and rhododendron.
India:
India is the largest country in the South Asian region and very rich in bio-diversity. It has a wide variety of forests small, medium and big. Some of the forests are situated between borders of two countries. A total of 3,166,414 square kilometers of India are covered with forest. The forests differ according to rainfall, altitude, topography, and latitude. The Assam region in the North East India offers a rich bio-diversity. The area is filled with lush green hills, pastures, tea gardens, river plains and wilderness. It has an area of 78,438 square kilometers. The major types of forests in these regions are the tropical wet evergreen forests, tropical semi-evergreen forests, tropical moist deciduous forest, sub-tropical broad leaved hill, sub-tropical pine and littoral and swamp forests.
Bangladesh:
Bangladesh is a small country but it has a rich and diverse forest resource. The forests of Bangladesh can be divided into three categories: hill forests, plain Sal forests and Mangrove littoral forests. The hill forests contain most of the productive forests areas and it has a huge contribution in the economy followed by the Sundarbans, the famous mangrove forest and home of Royal Bengal Tiger. The hill forests are situated between the Indian subcontinent floristic region and the Indo-China floristic region. The hill forest is then divided into various small forests. The Plain Sal forests is the least productive and endangered forest of Bangladesh. These forests are situated in most of the lowlands and flood plains in the central and western part of Bangladesh. The Sal forests consists of pure sal forest that consists of 100% Sal that grew on shallow dry and less productive soils in the north of Dhaka and was frequently burned. There are mixed Sal forests consisting of Terminalia bellerica, Albizzia procera, Lagerstroemia spp and Ficus species. Then there is the mangrove forests divided in three groups –the Sundarbans, coastal char forests, and coastal area forest from Chokoria to Teknaf.
Maldives:
Maldives is a small island country situated on the south-west of Indian ocean. It consists of a 1192 small islands two fifty of which are inhabited. Most of the country consists of wetlands and water bodies. I could not find any detailed information on forests in Maldives. According to Mongabay.com has less than 2,500 acres of forest and the country is severely suffering from deforestation problems.
Sri Lanka forest:
Though Sri Lanka has seen rapid deforestation over the past decade, forests of Sri Lanka are very rich in flora and fauna. It has the highest density of species diversity in the world. The forest is home various animals including amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles. In 2005, wild life researchers discovered 35 new frog species in the region. The country is known as the hotspot of the global biodiversity. The island is home to 3210 flowering plant species of which 916 are endemic. The southwest corner of Sri Lanka is covered with rain forest. The northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka are considerably drier which is covered by a tropical dry broadleaf forest. These forests have been cleared due to agriculture and timber. The long running civil war is also another major cause of deforestation.
Bhutan:
Bhutan is the only country in the world that emphasize on Gross National Happiness instead of Gross Domestic Product. In this twenty first century, where every country is trying its best to become highly industrialized, Bhutan is trying to follow the path of spiritualism. Thanks to GNP, since it is not so focused on increasing industry, most of the country’s natural resources have remained intact. In Bhutan, there are nine broad categories of forest: fir, mixed conifer, blue pine, chir pine, broadleaved mixed with conifers, broadleaved, and forest scrub. The mixed conifer forests occupy the largest area in the country of about 486,710 ha. The forest offer several tree species including Picea spinulosa, hemlock, larch, rhododendron, bamboo and various shrubs. The blue pine forests can be found in the Ha, Paro and Thimpu valleys in the West and Bumthang and Gyetsa valleys.
Pakistan:
Pakistan’s land mass can be divided into two general categories: alluvial plain and sand-dunal deserts. Five rivers run through the country including namely, Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej. Hence, the country has a rich forest resource. There is the littoral and Swamp forests which can be found around the coast of Karachi and Pasni in Balochistan. There tropical dry deciduous forests are available in the Rawalpindi foothills. They are facing extinction from cultivation. The chief tree species of these forests are: Lannea (Kamlai, Kembal) Bombax ceiba (Semal), Sterculia, Flacourtia (Kakoh, Kangu), Mallotus (Kamila, Raiuni) and Acacia catechu (Kath). Common shrubs are Adhatoda (Bankar, Basuti, Bansha), Gymnosporia (Putaki) and Indigofera (Kathi, Kainthi). Tropical thorn forests occupies the entire Indus plain except the driest parts. The major tree species are Prosopis cineraria (Jhand), Capparis decidua (Karir, Karil), Zizyphus mauritiana (Ber), Tamarix aphylla (Farash) and Salvadora oleoides (Pilu, wan). The forests also contains large number of shrubs of all sizes.
Planning for your honeymoon travel? Why not try Maldives? This small island country situated in the IndianOcean is a great destination for tourists. If you love taking a walk on sandy beaches, enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful blue sea, the Maldives is the place where you should be.
Officially know as the Republic of Maldives, the Maldives is an island country consisting of 1192 islets stretching south of Lakhadweep islands between Minicoy Island and Chagos Archipelago and about seven hundred kilometers south-west of Sri Lanka in Laccadive Sea of Indian Ocean. Out of the 1192 islands of the country, two hundred islands are inhabited. Due to its small land mass, Maldives do not have much heavy industry. Tourism and fishing industry are two of the country’s major foreign currency earners. Hence, the tourism sector of the country is very much well developed. Every year, thousands of tourists from Europe come to Maldives.
Some interesting facts:
The Maldives is the smallest Asian country in terms of population and land mass.
The Maldives is also the smallest Muslim nation in the world.
With its average ground level 1.5 meters above the sea level, Maldives also has the lowest highest point in the world, at 2.3 meters above sea level.
Here are some reasons why you should travel to Maldives:
Maldives is a country of natural beauty. From ancient times, the country charmed many travelers and sailors. Ibn Batuta, a famous Moroccan traveler and scholar of 14th century referred Maldives as “one of the wonders of the world.”
Maldives is a popular traveling destination for Hollywood celebrities. Famous Hollywood actor Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes did their honeymoon in Maldives. Other major Hollywood celebrities who came to Maldives include Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, George Michael, Katie Price, and Naomi Campbell.
As I have mentioned earlier, tourism is one of the main industries of Maldives. There are many islands that have beautiful tourist resorts surrounded by beautiful landscape. Currently, there are more than 80 tourist resorts in the country. The resorts are equipped with all the modern facilities making Maldives a great travel destination.
You would not need any travel visa if you have plans to travel for thirty days. Upon arrival, you will be given necessary permits if you have valid documents. People who come from malaria and cholera infected countries need a vaccination certificate.
The beautiful sea beaches and sea are the main attraction of Maldives. If you love to walk on the sandy beaches on a beautiful sunny day then Maldives is the answer to your prayer.
Aside from that Maldives is also famous for its rich aquatic diversity which makes it an ideal place for scuba diving. The resorts also have arrangements for night fishing trips and snorkeling.
The Maldives is basically a collection coral islands. There are many coral reefs that offer a rich collection of plants and fish species. The stony coral has thousand species. They can grow upto 30 meters. These corals can be seen at a depth of 20,000 feet. They make up the coral reefs.
Maldives has seventy different species of coral reefs. Each of these reefs has different colors. More than 700 species of fish are found in these reefs including Dogtooth Tuna, Tuna, Jacks, Sweetlips, Butterfly fish, Wahoo and Fusiliers. Octopus and giant Napoleon wrasse.
Water sports is another major tourist attractions of Maldives. The tourist resorts have facilities for a wide range of water sports including windsurfing, catamaran sailing, para-sailing, banana-boating, water-skiing and beach volleyball.
The resorts of Maldives are basically floating cottages over crystal clear sea water. Isn’t that a beautiful scenery to imagine? Surrounded by beautiful landscapes the resorts are situated in three different atolls and each resorts have their unique set of services.
It seems that my fate is some how related to South Asian region and I do not mind it because I was born in this part of the world and have lived almost all of my life here. This is perhaps my 5th blog about South Asia in the last 3 years. I have seen success in all of the previous four. So, I am optimistic about it too. You may wonder why I left the previous 4. Well, I did not leave them. Actually, I used to write for Know More Media blog network and there I used to write about South Asian Business and Indian Business. The blog network got closed because of economic recession and some other reasons and I lost the two successful blogs.
Then I joined another network and did not continue after 4-5 months. So, on January 2009, I opened SouthAsiaBlog.com and it is still going on smoothly. In fact, this month, it has received almost 100,000 page views- a good traffic for a 4-5 month old blog. In South Asia Blog, I am supposed to cover business and economy related topics. However, what happens from time to time is that I try to cover off topics such as sports and entertainment.
As a result, often, I digress from my main theme and it becomes a big problem because it destroys the beauty of the main topic. That is why; I strongly felt the need to open a new blog on South Asia. I want to cover different aspects of South Asia in this blog.
So, if you are interested about South Asia in anyway, then you will like this blog hopefully. So, warm welcome to South Asia 37.
