Narmada River, southeast of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India Photograph by Sujit Patwardhan   Southern Asia: Central India Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests   65,600 square miles (169,900 square kilometers) -- about the size of Indiana and South Carolina combined Critical/Endangered

· Three Stories of Diversity
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Three Stories of Diversity

Nature’s version of a three-story building is the three stories of vegetation found in the Narmada Valley Dry Deciduous Forests. At the top is the upper canopy of trees that reach 82 feet (25 m) tall. Below are shorter trees that make up the understory. At the bottom is the undergrowth that generally reaches no more than 13 feet (4 m) high. Each story is used by a variety of wildlife.

Special Features

The ranges of hills that make up this ecosystem rise to over 4,265 feet (1,300 m). During the annual southwest monsoon season they catch up to 59 inches (150 cm) of rainfall, enough water to sustain the dry forests during the seven-to-eight-month dry season. Several very large blocks of natural habitat remain intact, providing enough room for Asia’s largest predator, the tiger, to continue in its wide-ranging movements.

	Wild dogs are also called dholes (translated as "red-dogs") because of their rusty-red coats. Dholes have extraordinary calls. They can whistle, scream, meow like a cat, or cluck like a chicken.

Wild Side

Packs of wild dogs live in this region. Working as a team, they are able to bring down animals ten times larger than themselves, or to chase tigers away from their kills. Nighttime is a time of activity for many animals: The fulvous fruit bat comes out to look for food, and the gaur, one of several threatened animal species living here, is also active.

Cause for Concern

Nearly two-thirds of the natural forests of this ecoregion have been cleared, and activities from the dense human population continue to degrade the remaining blocks of forest. However, the most serious threat to this area comes from the series of dams being built on the Narmada River. These dams will flood critical habitat and force large numbers of people from local communities into the nearby intact forests.

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