The Northeast India-Myanmar pine forests is a montane subtropical coniferous forest

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

in the mountains of Northeastern India and adjacent portions of

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

(also known as Burma).

Setting

The ecoregion covers an area of of the Naga Hills that with the

Patkai The Pat-kai (Pron:pʌtˌkaɪ) or Patkai Bum ( Burmese: ''Patkaing Taungdan'') are a series of mountains on the Indo-Myanmar border falling in the northeastern Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Upper Burma region of Myanmar. I ...

(including the Lushai Hills) and the

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

Hills form part of the Burmese-Java arc of folded mountains that run south-east of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

and make up the India-Myanmar border region. The pine forests are found between in elevation, and occur in three separate enclaves. The largest enclave straddles the boundary between India's

Nagaland Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Sel ...

state and Myanmar, and the two smaller enclaves grows in the southern part of India's

Mizoram Mizoram is a states and union territories of India, state in northeastern India, with Aizawl as its Capital city, capital and largest city. It shares 722-kilometres (449 miles) of international borders with Bangladesh to the west, and Myanmar t ...

state, also along the Myanmar border. The pine forests are surrounded at lower elevations by the predominantly broadleaf Mizoram–Manipur–Kachin rain forests and are part of the huge Burma Monsoon Forest transition zone between the

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

and

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

regions.

Flora

The

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

forests forms a habitat that is rare in the

Indomalayan realm The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Ind ...

. Tenasserim pine ''(Pinus latteri)'' is the dominant

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

at lower elevations, sometimes associated with

dipterocarp Dipterocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India, Indochina, Indo ...

s. At higher elevations, Khasi pine ''(P. kesiya)'' and blue pine ''(P. wallichiana)'' are the predominant species, associated with other evergreens including hemlocks ''(Tsuga)'' and

fir Firs are evergreen coniferous trees belonging to the genus ''Abies'' () in the family Pinaceae. There are approximately 48–65 extant species, found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Eurasia, and North Africa. The genu ...

s ''(Abies)'', and broadleaf trees, including

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

s ''(Quercus)'' and

maple ''Acer'' is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated si ...

s ''(Acer)'', while ''

Rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...

'', '' Ilex'', ''

Prunus ''Prunus'' is a genus of flowering plant, flowering trees and shrubs from the family (biology), family Rosaceae. The genus includes plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots and almonds (collectively Drupe, stonefruit). The genus has a cosm ...

'', and

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

''( Arundinaria)'' are common

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the Canopy (biology), forest ca ...

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

Fauna

Although home to a smaller variety of wildlife than the surrounding

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

these pine forests are relatively unspoilt and therefore still important habitat for a number of species adapted to the rocky heights. When the area was surveyed by the

Wildlife Conservation Society The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a global 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-governmental organization, headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, with a mission to save "wildlife and wild places across the globe". Founded in ...

in the 1950s mammals of the pine forest included Red serow ''(Capricornis rubidus)'', sambar ''(rusa unicolor)'', Indian muntjac ''(Muntiacus muntjac)'',

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

''(Sus scrofa)'', and Asian black bear ''(ursus thibetanus)'' while smaller mammals include Oriental giant squirrels, Indian giant flying squirrel and

civet A civet () is a small, lean, mostly nocturnal mammal native to tropical Asia and Africa, especially the tropical forests. The term ''civet'' applies to over a dozen different species, mostly from the family Viverridae. Most of the species's div ...

s. None of these mammals are endemic to this ecoregion. Birds reported in the survey include the silver-breasted broadbill ''(Serilophus lunatus)'', white-naped yuhina ''(Yuhina bakeri)'', rufous-vented tit ''(Periparus rubidiventris)'', stripe-throated yuhina ''(Yuhina gularis)'', a number of Old World babblers, grey-sided laughingthrush ''(Garrulax caerulatus)'', rufous-chinned laughingthrush ''(Garrulax rufogularis)'', striated laughingthrush ''(Garrulax striatus)'', purple and green cochoas, beautiful nuthatch ''(Sitta formosa)'', sultan tit ''(Melanochlora sultana)'', some

leafbird The leafbirds (Chloropseidae) are a family of small passerine bird species found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. They were formerly grouped with the ioras and fairy-bluebirds in the family Irenidae. As presently defined, the leaf ...

s and white-browed fulvetta ''(fulvetta vinipectus)'' while large numbers of shelduck and bar-headed goose were seen on the

Chindwin River The Chindwin River (), also known as the Ningthi River (), is a river in Myanmar and is the largest tributary of the Irrawaddy River. Sources The Chindwin originates in the broad Hukawng Valley of Kachin State of Burma, roughly , where the Tanai, ...

. Two more species of laughingthrush are thought to be endemic to these mountains: brown-capped laughingthrush ''(Garrulax austeni)'' and striped laughingthrush ''(Garrulax virgatus)''.

Threats and preservation

These mountains have been poorly researched since the 1950s, when it was noted that patches were being systematically cleared for farming and this

shifting cultivation Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned while post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to freely grow while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cul ...

continues today resulting in

soil erosion Soil erosion is the denudation or wearing away of the Topsoil, upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, Atmosphere of Ea ...

and loss of habitat for wildlife.

References

*Wikramanayake, Eric; Eric Dinerstein; Colby Loucks; et al. (2002). ''Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: a Conservation Assessment''. Island Press; Washington, D.C. (U.S.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Northeast India-Myanmar pine forests Ecoregions of India Ecoregions of Myanmar Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests Forests of India Forests of Myanmar Montane forests Indomalayan ecoregions * *

Setting

Flora

Fauna

Threats and preservation

See also

References