Question

What is meant by natural vegetation?

Answer 1

Hint: Vegetation is a group of species of plants and the ground cover they provide. Vegetation type is defined by characteristic properties like dominant species, altitude/elevation or an environmental feature.

Complete answer:
Vegetation is a group of plant species found in a particular area with characteristic features like elevation. It can be classified into Natural and Artificial.

Natural vegetation refers to the plant species, which have grown naturally without any human intervention for a long time, also termed as a virgin vegetation. Species (Virgin) which are purely Indian and not imported are known as endemic or indigenous species. Natural vegetation is further divided into 5 types based on climate conditions - Tropical evergreen forest, Tropical deciduous forest, Thorny bushes, Mountain vegetation and Mangrove forests.

A close relationship exist between height of land and the character of vegetations. With the change in height, a change occurs in the climate, which eventually lead to changes in the natural vegetation. The growth of vegetation is dependent on factors like temperature and moisture, but it also depends on some other factors like slope and thickness of soil.

Note: India is included in the 12 mega bio-diversity countries of the world. With about 47,000 plant species, India is on the 10th place in the World in plant diversity. Having about 15,000 flowering plants and approximately 90,000 species of animals, as well as a rich variety of sea life in its water bodies, the biodiversity of India is one of the best in the world.