Question

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands have __________ forests.

Answer 1

Hint: The Andaman Islands are an archipelago which is located to the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Most of the islands here, belong to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, while some of them belong to Myanmar.

Complete Answer:
-Andaman & Nicobar Islands support very lush and rich vegetation due to tropical hot and humid climate with sufficient rains.

-As per the Champion & Seth Classification of Forest Types (1968), the forests in Andaman & Nicobar Islands belong to four Type Groups, namely;
Tropical Wet Evergreen, Tropical Semi Evergreen, Tropical Moist Deciduous and Littoral & Swamp Forests which are further classified into 13 Forest Types.

-The Middle Andamans consists of mostly moist deciduous forests. North Andamans is wet evergreen type, with plenty of woody climbers.

-The North Nicobar Islands are depicted by the complete scarcity of evergreen forests, while such forests form the prominent vegetation in the central and southern islands of the Nicobar group.

-The Grasslands occur only in the Nicobars. The deciduous forests are widespread in the Andamans but they are almost absent in the Nicobars. The present forest coverage is alleged to be 86.2% of the total land area. Hence, they have mostly evergreen forests.

Note:The total forest area of the Andaman and Nicobar is 7,170.69 sq km which is 86.93% of its geographical area. Nature has given these islands with a distinct and varied flora and fauna. Due to the geographic isolation, this island is vulnerable to disturbances and a large degree of endemism exists here.