PHYSICAL FEATURES AND NATURAL RESOURCES

VEGETATION

NATURAL VEGETATION as such hardly seems to exist in the district since much of the area of the district has been brought under cultivation and that which is not technically under forests and grasslands, has been considerably destroyed. Elements of natural vegetation appear to be of three types: The truly monsoonal forests with such trees as Hirda, Ain, Nana and various kinds of cassias and teak occur in the rainier parts of the west; secondly, a degenerate form of the monsoonal type occurs more as scrub with stunted teak, khair and bamboo in the hilly tracks in the middle; thirdly, a savanla type of vegetation consisting of grass and thorny shrubs notably acacias appears in the drier eastern parts. As has been said already, much of the natural vegetation has been modified by man and there has been an evident decrease of monsoonal vegetation cover and an increase in grass land areas as a result of the rapid destruction of forests. It appears that riverine meadows which were an important feature of the agricultural economy during the last century have also been vanishing with the increase in cultivated area in the upper regions of almost all the valleys of the district.

TOP