Rainfall and Forest Types of India
How rainfall and altitude decide India's forests, one representative point per pattern. A conceptual map: markers show typical locations, not boundaries.
Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom. Tap a state to zoom into it, tap a marker for its exam facts.
Every place on this map
Asked in exams
Actual questions from UPSC and state PCS papers that this map answers. The key detail column carries the correct fact behind each question.
| Exam | Question | Key detail |
|---|---|---|
| UPSC | Areas with over 200 cm rain: Meghalaya, Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal | — |
| UPSC | Rain scanty east of the Western Ghats: it is the lee side | A and R true, R explains A |
| UPSC | Rain on the Tamil Nadu coast in Oct-Nov: retreating south-west monsoon | — |
| UPSC | Monsoon duration decreases south: north ✓; rain in the northern plains falls east: west ✓ | — |
| UPSC | Decreasing annual rain: Kochi, Kolkata, Patna, Delhi | — |
| UPSC | Monsoon rain decreases west and north-west in the Ganga plain ✓ | — |
| UPSC | Sutlej-Ganga plain gets some winter rain: western depressions | — |
| UPSC 1980 | Silent Valley project was dropped: ecologists warned of environmental imbalance | — |
| UPSC 1984 | Silent Valley project abandoned for: ecological reasons | — |
| UPSC 2015 | Tropical wet evergreen forests occur in: Arunachal and Mizoram | 1 and 3 only |
| UPSC 2015 | Climate from tropical to arctic: Namdapha National Park | — |
| UPSC 2015 | Mangrove + evergreen + deciduous together: Andaman and Nicobar Islands | — |
| UPSC 2010 | Largest area among the options: tropical moist deciduous forest | — |
| UPSC 2015 | Teak is a dominant tree in: tropical moist deciduous forest | — |
| UPSC 2002 | Open stunted forests with long roots and thorns: Western Andhra Pradesh | — |
| UPSC 2014 | Seen growing in the Himalaya: oak and rhododendron | not sandalwood |
| UPSC 2008 | Not a Himalayan species: mahogany | juniper, silver fir, spruce are |
| UPSC 2011 | Himalaya rich in species: confluence of biogeographical zones | — |
| UPSC 2019 | National Park completely in the temperate alpine zone: Valley of Flowers | — |
| UPSC 2002 | Match mangroves: Achra-Ratnagiri, Coondapur, Pichavaram, Vembanad: MH, KA, TN, KL | — |
| UPSC | Tropical wet evergreen forests: rainfall above 200 cm | — |
| UPSC | Tropical thorn forests: rainfall below 70 cm | — |
| UPPCS | Mawsynram: the wettest place on Earth | Meghalaya |
About this map
A conceptual map: where India gets rain and why, and how rainfall plus altitude decides the forest, from evergreen to thorn, alpine and mangrove. Each marker is a representative point for a regime, not a boundary.
The core logic is orographic: the Western Ghats and the Northeast get the heavy rain, the rain-shadow and the northwest stay dry. Forest types follow the 200/100/70 cm rainfall thresholds the exam quotes.
Monsoon mechanics (Arabian Sea versus Bay of Bengal branches, the ITCZ shift) are asked alongside. Treat this map as the theory behind the vegetation questions.