Revisiting forest types of India

Abstract

SUMMARY Champion and Seth undertook the pioneering work on classification of forests in India. Earlier Sir H.G. Champion had compiled his monumental work ‘Preliminary Survey of Forest Types of India and Burma’ in 1936. The original work of 1936 was revised by Sir H.G. Champion with S.K. Seth which was published as ‘A Revised Survey of the Forest Types of India’. Their work helped the forest managers and researchers all over the Indian sub-continent to prepare management plans for the scientific management of forests. India's forest types are very diverse in their compositions with a long evolutionary and geological history, occurring under many climatic and edaphic conditions. They have been undergoing subtle but significant changes in the composition of forests since the forest types were revised by Champion and Seth. These changes have taken place on account of climatic changes and anthropogenic causes (biotic pressure as well as management interventions). The present study was conducted by revisiting v...