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This book attempts to understand the diverse forests of Karnataka in the southwest of India, their current status, and the primary factors that led to their transformation from their pristine (original and unspoilt) to the present state. Although the formation of different types of forests depends fundamentally upon the general climatic and soil-related factors which vary from place to place, the present conditions of the forests are to a considerable extent reflective of the treatments meted out to them over the centuries. These include past forest management practices such as forest reservation, logging, clear-felling, raising plantations, forest protection, etc. as well as other biotic factors such as shifting cultivation, expansion of agriculture, heavy withdrawals of biomass, introduction of plantation crops, recurring fires, over-grazing, encroachments, etc. As a matter of fact, we now have different types of forest in different parts of the state depending upon the nature and intensity of the past interventions. The book, while analysing various factors that resulted in the degradation of a vast majority of the state’s forests, also suggests ways and means of how the existing forests can be protected from further degradation, enabling them to recover and rejuvenate.
