Northwestern thorn scrub forests
The
Northwestern thorn scrub forests are a
xeric shrubland ecoregion of
Pakistan and northwestern
India. The ecoregion encircles the
Thar Desert and
Indus Valley Desert ecoregions. It includes the western half of
Gujarat (excluding the mountain of
Girnar), and extending through Rajasthan, where it is bounded on the southeast by the
Aravalli Range. It encompasses most of
Haryana and
Punjab states of India as well as the
Jammu region of
Jammu and Kashmir, extending to the foothills of the Himalayas. In Pakistan, the ecoregion covers most of
Punjab province, extending into easternmost
Northwest Frontier and
Baluchistan provinces and western
Sind.
The Northwestern thorn scrub forests are thought to be
tropical dry forests that were degraded through intensive agriculture and grazing into stunted and open thorn scrub, dominated by species such as
Acacia senegal and
A. leucophloea, as well as
Prosopis cineraria,
Capparis zeylandica, and species of
Salvadora, Gymnosporia, Grewia, and
Gardenia. Over 90% of the ecoregion has been converted to human use, and the remaining habitat is highly fragmented.
This ecoregion, together with the
Thar Desert and Indus Valley Desert ecoregions, form
Udvardy's "Thar Desert"
Biogeographic province.
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Northwestern thorn scrub forests (World Wildlife Fund)
