Land and The People

CLIMATE/SEASONS

  • The climate of India may be broadly described as tropical monsoon
  • The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) designates four official seasons:
  1. Winter, occurring from December to early April. The year’s coldest months are December and January, when temperatures average around 10-15°C in the northwest; temperatures rise as one proceeds towards the equator, peaking around 20-250C in mainland India’s southeast,
  2. Summer or pre-monsoon season, lasting from April to June (April to July in northwestern India). In western and southern regions, the hottest month is April; for northern regions, May is the hottest month. Temperatures average around 32-40°C in most of the interior,
  3. Monsoon or rainy season, lasting from June to September. The season is dominated by the humid southwest summer monsoon, which slowly sweeps across the country beginning in late May or early June. Monsoon rains begin to recede from North India at the beginning of October. South India typically receives more rainfall.
  4. Post-monsoon season, lasting from October to December. In northwestern India, October and November are usually cloudless.
  • The Himalayan states, being more temperate, experience an additional two seasons: autumn and spring.
  • Traditionally, Indians note six seasons, each about two months long. These are the spring (Sanskrit: Vasanta), summer (grishma), monsoon season (Varsha), early autumn (sharada), late autumn (hemanta), and winter (shishira). These are based on the astronomical division of the twelve months into six parts.
  • India’s climate is affected by two seasonal winds: the north—east monsoon and the south-west monsoon.
  • The north-east monsoon commonly known as winter monsoon blows from land to sea whereas south-west monsoon known as summer monsoon blows from sea to land after crossing the Indian ocean, the Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal.
  • The south—west monsoon brings most of the rainfall during the year in the country.

FLORA IN INDIA

  • India is rich in flora. Available data place India in the 10th position in the world and 4th in Asia in plant diversity.
  • From about 70% geographical area surveyed so far, over 46,000 species of plants have been described by the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Kolkata.
  • The Vascular flora, which forms the Conspicuous vegetation cover, comprises 15,000 species.
  • India can be divided into 8 distinct floristlc-regions, namely, the western Himalayas, the eastern Himalayas, Assam, the Indus plain, the Ganga plain, the Deccan, Malabar and the Andamans.
  1. The Western Himalayan region extends from Kashmir to Kumaon. Its temperate zone is rich in forests of chir, pine, other conifers and broad-leaved temperate trees. Higher up, forests of deodar, blue pine, spruce and silver fir occur. The alpine zone extends from the upper limit of the temperate zone of about 4,750 metres or even higher. The characteristic trees of this zone are high- level silver fir, silver birch and junipers.
  2. The eastern Himalayan region extends from Sikkim eastwards and embraces Darjeeling, Kurseong and the adjacent tracts. The temperate zone has forests of oaks, laurels, maples, rhododendrons, alder and birch. Many conifers, junipers and dwarf willows also grow here.
  3. The Assam region comprises the Brahmaputra and the Surma valleys with evergreen forests, occasional thick clumps of bamboos and tall grasses.
  4. The Indus plain region comprises the plains of Punjab, western Rajasthan and northern Gujarat. It is dry, hot and supports natural vegetation.
  5. The Ganga plain region covers the area which is alluvial plain and is under cultivation for wheat, sugarcane and rice. Only small areas support forests of widely differing types.
  6. The Deccan region comprises the entire table land of the Indian Peninsula and supports vegetation of various kinds from shrub jungles to mixed deciduous forests.
  7. The Malabar region covers the excessively humid belt of mountain country parallel to the west coast of the Peninsula. Besides being rich in forest vegetation, this region produces important commercial crops, such as coconut, betelnut, pepper, coffee, tea, rubber and cashewnut.
  8. The Andaman region abounds in evergreen, mangrove, beach and diluvial forests. Iihe Himalayan region extending from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh through Sikkim, Meghalaya and Nagaland and the Deccan Peninsula is rich in endemic flora, with a large number of plants which are not found elsewhere.
    • Ethno—botanical study deals with the utilisation of plants and plant products by ethnic races. A scientific study of such plants has been done by BSI.
    • About 1,336 plant species are considered vulnerable and endangered. About 20 species of higher plants are categorised as possibly extinct, as these have not been sighted during the last 6-10 decades.
    • BSI brings out an inventory of endangered plants in the form of a publication titled Red Data Book.
UPSC Prelims 2025 Notes