Bioclimatology and Plant Geography of Peninsular India

Contents: Introduction. I. The Indian sub-continent : geographical outlook: 1. Introduction. 2. Peninsular India. 3. The Mountain ranges in the peninsula. 4. The geological history. II. Climate: 1. Meteorological seasons. 2. Rainfall. 3. The south-west monsoon. 4. The monsoon mechanism. 5. The monsoon phenomenon. 6. Post-monsoon season. 7. Cyclones and depressions. 8. Eastern depressions. 9. Western disturbances. 10. The dry season. 11. Study of climatic factors. 12. Diversity of climates. 13. Climatic classification of India. 14. Climatic variability. 15. Effect of forests on climate. 16. Combating droughts and desertification. 17. Concluding remarks. III. Palaeogeography and palaeoclimates: 1. The azoic era (archaeozoic). 2. The proterozoic era (Upper pre-Cambrian). 3. The palaeozoic and the earlier plant-life. 4. The Devonian period and the psilophytates. 5. The Gondwana system. 6. The Jurassic period (The age of Cycads). 7. Cretaceous-eocene and the angiosperms. 8. Causes of climatic change. 9. Quaternary and the role of palynology in reconstructing the vegetational history. 10. Phenology of species in relation to the northward drift of the Indian landmass. 11. Man’s impact on the vegetation since the Neolithic. 12. Concluding remarks. IV. Soils of peninsular India: 1. Skeletal soil or Lithosol. 2. Sand and sand-dunes. 3. Saline soils. 4. Alluvial soils. 5. Black soils. 6. Brown soils. 7. Tropical red ferruginuous soils. 8. Ferrallitic soils. V. Vegetation of peninsular India and its conservation status: 1. Introduction. 2. Units of conservation effort. 3. Materials and methods. 4. Vegetation cover of India. 5. Survey of vegetation types. 6. Representation of diversity through a transect in the Nilgiri biosphere reserve. 7. The Andaman – Nicobar Island. 8. Coastal formations. 9. Concluding remarks. VI. Area under forest in India: 1. Interpretation of vegetation –report and analysis. 2. Concluding remarks. VII. Some thoughts on meeting the environmental challenges of the new Millennium : 1. Development in agronomic sector. 2. Over-exploitation of ground-water. 3. Facing the threat of rise in sea-level in the coastal areas. 4. Development in the forested tracts. 5. Loss of biodiversity. 6. Deforestation and change in the hydrological cycle. 7. Conservation oriented development projects. 8. Fuel-wood trees for greening wastelands. 9. Big dams. 10. Forest management. References.

The genesis of this book lies in the extensive and intensive surveys of vegetation carried out by the author over four decades, within the framework of vegetation mapping scheme of the French Institute, Pondicherry in collaboration with the ICAR and the State Forest Departments.

"Vegetation studies necessitated the knowledge of climatic conditions, palaeoclimates, soils and geology. Therefore, included in the book are sections on climate, soils, geological history and palaeoecology, reconstructing the climates and vegetation of the past. Special focus is on the influence of forests on the hydrological cycle. The bioclimatic classification would interest agroclimatologists.

"The approach to vegetation is on an eco-floristic basis and the concept of "Series of Vegetation" is the only alternative to H.G. Champion’s "Pre-liminary Forest Types" framed in 1936. Within the series are recognised physiognomic standardised at the Yangambi Conference of 1956, these are arranged in successive stages of degradation.

"Whereas, the National Remote Sensing Agency and the Forest Survey of India have published the statistics of forest cover on administrative basis (state-wise or district-wise), the book follows an ecological trend, giving percentages of forest and other degraded vegetation for each series or vegetation type. Information on types facing extinction would be of prime value to conservationists.

"The publication which terminates with a brief review of the environmental challenges of the approaching millenium will serve as a useful reference book for those interested in Ecology, Forestry, Agriculture, Life Sciences and Earth Sciences.