Vegetation and Forest Types of the Western Ghats

The Western Ghats, parallel to the west coast of India, occupied an area of 129,037 km² comprised a major portion of the Western Ghats and Sri Lankan Hotspot for conservation in the Indian subcontinent. It is one among the 36 global hotspots of the world with its unique assemblages of plant and animal communities and rich endemic species of wellknown conservation endemic and heritage centres of the world. All these biological species assemblages over the various forest areas of the Ghats were determined by its climatic, edaphic, and topographic gradients. This chapter reveals the forest types and their characteristic floristic compositions existing the Western Ghats hotspot. The Western Ghats has four major categories of the forests such as moist tropical forests, dry tropical forests, montane subtropical forests, and montane temperate forests with 39 subtypes of forests.