Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary, India Photograph by Doug Helmer   Southern Asia: Eastern India Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests   47,300 square miles (122,400 square kilometers) -- about the size of New York Critical/Endangered

· Dry but Diverse
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Dry but Diverse

Travel through the Chota-Nagpur Dry Deciduous Forests and you’ll encounter a variety of habitats. The dry forests nurture trees reaching up to 82 feet (25 m) tall. Threatened birds such as lesser floricans and large mammals such as sloth bears find refuge here. The forests range from dry to wet forests, and occasionally include even swampy areas. When you emerge from the forests you may find yourself in grasslands or scrublands of bamboo and shrubs. Throughout the area you could encounter elephants and tigers.

Special Features

Located on the Chota-Nagpur Plateau, this ecoregion has distinctly different plants and animals from the neighboring areas, which are generally more moist. Some pockets contain plants that are found nowhere else on Earth. Although none of the animals are unique to this area, what is rare and very important is that there are still large blocks of habitat where they can live relatively undisturbed from humans.

	The sloth bear is covered by a long, shaggy, black coat that makes it appear to have a mane. The bear also has a very distinctive white-yellow "V" marking on its chest.

Wild Side

After spending the day searching for food, Indian gray hornbills, as well as other species, roost for the night in trees. These and other hornbills build their nests in cavities in tall, mature trees. There the mother hornbill bird stays for three months to sit on a single egg and take care of the hatchling. The forests and grasslands are also home to 76 species of mammals, including predators such as tigers and wild dogs and prey such as blackbucks and chinkaras.

Cause for Concern

Mining for iron ore and coal is taking place throughout the ecoregion. This affects large areas of habitat, disrupting the migration routes of elephant herds and dispersal routes for tigers. Other threats come from livestock grazing, which damages vegetation.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.