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These temperate forests contain a wealth of life forms, including many distinctive species. This Global 200 ecoregion is made up of these terrestrial ecoregions: Eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests; Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests; Northern Triangle temperate forests; Northeastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests The rugged, snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas have become a well-known landscape for anyone who has an interest in mountaineering expeditions. Less well known are the Eastern Himalayan Broadleaf and Conifer Forests, which blanket the lowlands to the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India, Nepal, and Bhutan. These middle-elevation forests range from 3,000 to 13,000 feet (900 to 3,900 m). Though some people might think this part of the Himalaya is less dramatic than the shining snow peaks, the fact is, forests here are vibrant with life and provide homes for a tremendous diversity of plant and animal species.
Temperatures vary widely throughout the year in the Eastern Himalayan Broadleaf and Conifer Forests, and rain follows the monsoon season: The weather is warm and wet from the first hailstorms of April to the last monsoon drizzle sometime in October -- mushrooms grow everywhere! But from the beginning of fall, months may go by with scarcely a drop of rain, although snow can blanket the high country anytime during the winter. These conditions are ideal for broadleaf evergreen trees at the lower elevations, deciduous trees and conifers higher up. At certain elevations, where conditions are neither too cold nor too dry, the trees themselves are draped with all kinds of small plants: orchids, lichens, and ferns. Here, forests at the higher elevations need to be treated with care, because they grow quite slow and take many years to heal when they’re cut or burned. Many kinds of birds inhabit these forests -- some that are just passing through and others that build nests and breed here. They include Kashmir flycatchers, striped laughing thrushes, Blyth's tragopans, Himalayan quail, and iridescent fire-tailed sunbirds. Eastern Himalayan forests are also home to a number of extraordinary mammals. Lesser pandas munch on bamboo shoots, scooting quickly up a tree if they sense danger. Clouded leopards pounce from overhanging branches onto ground prey. Shaggy goat-antelopes called takins munch on twigs, bamboo leaves, and grasses. And rare golden langurs -- monkeys found only in these forests -- spend their days in the treetops, eating leaves and fruits and sipping water from the dew and rain-drenched leaves. It’s not all cute and furry either. Blood-sucking leeches hunker in the grass, ready to move quickly at the first hint of warm-blooded flesh, and orb-weaver spiders the size of your thumb build enormous webs between the branches of overhanging trees.
One of the major threats to these forests is the harvesting of timber, but the cutting of fuel wood by trekkers and mountaineers is certainly part of the problem. Additional threats include intensive grazing by livestock and agricultural expansion.
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