This sub-region comprises the area from the base of Himalayas to
Kanyakumari but excludes the Malabar coast. This is the true home of Indian
fauna. The whole sub region can be divided into two broad zones. 1) The desert
region of Rajasthan lying on the west of the Aravali ranges and east of the
Indus Valley also known as Thar, connected with salt flats of Little Rann of
Kutch and 2) the tropical deciduous wood lands covering peninsular India extending
to the drainage basin of the Ganges river system.
The desert area of this sub-region consist of dry tropical,
dry mixed deciduous, thorn forests, scrub forests and dry Savanna forests.
The desert trees are thorny with reduced leaf surface Cacti and Succulents
are the plant species in the desert area. The animals have also developed
adaptations to face the scarcity of water and severity of high temperature.
The fauna found in this area are Asiatic wild-ass, blackbuck,
desert cat, Caracal, desert fox, snakes, lizards and tortoises.
The region of peninsular India and the drainage basin of the Ganges consists
of tropical moist deciduous to tropical dry deciduous and scrub forest depending
upon the rainfall. The northern and the eastern part which receive more rain has
sal as the predominant species and the southern part has teak as the main species. Western
ghats of the western portion if the central belt receive very high rainfall and
support evergreen vegetation.
The peninsular India has a variety of wild animals such as elephant,
muntjak, sambar, wild boar, guar, chettal, hog deer, swamp deer or barasingha,
nilgai, blackbuck, wild dog, tiger, leopard, lion, hyena, jackal, jungle cat,
common mongoose, wolf, squirrel, hare etc. The spotted deer, nilgai,
blackbuck, four-horned antelope (chausingha) and sloth bear found in the
triangular land bounded by the Vindhyas in the north and the western and eastern
ghats on the other two sides, constitute the true Indian fauna which are not
found anywhere else outside India.
The National parks in this region are Betla in
Jharkhand, Gir, Velavadar, Vansda,
Marine in Gujarat, Bandipur, Bannarghata, Nagarhole, Kudremukh and Anshi in
Karnataka, Kanna, Bandhavgarh, Madhav, Indravati, Panna, Satpura, Sanjay, Van
Vihar, Fossil, Kanger and Pench in Madhya Pradesh, Tadoba, Panch, Nawagaon,
Sanjay Gandhi in Maharashtra, Simlipal in Orissa, Ranthambore, Sariska, Keoladeo
and desert in Rajasthan.
