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PHYSICAL FEATURES AND NATURAL
RESOURCES |
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VEGETATION
NATURAL VEGETATION as such hardly seems to exist in
the district since much of the area of the district has been brought
under cultivation and that which is not technically under forests
and grasslands, has been considerably destroyed. Elements of natural
vegetation appear to be of three types: The truly monsoonal forests
with such trees as Hirda, Ain, Nana and various
kinds of cassias and teak occur in the rainier parts of the west;
secondly, a degenerate form of the monsoonal type occurs more as
scrub with stunted teak, khair and bamboo in the hilly tracks in the
middle; thirdly, a savanla type of vegetation consisting of grass
and thorny shrubs notably acacias appears in the drier eastern
parts. As has been said already, much of the natural vegetation has
been modified by man and there has been an evident decrease of
monsoonal vegetation cover and an increase in grass land areas as a
result of the rapid destruction of forests. It appears that riverine
meadows which were an important feature of the agricultural economy
during the last century have also been vanishing with the increase
in cultivated area in the upper regions of almost all the valleys of
the district.
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