The Orissa semi-evergreen forests are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of eastern India. The ecoregion covers an area of 22,300 square kilometers (8,600 sq mi) on the coastal plain of Orissa state, bounded on the north and west by the Eastern Highlands moist deciduous forests and on the south and west by the Bay of Bengal.
The ecoregion has been extensively cleared for agriculture and urbanization. Several of Orissa's largest cities, including Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Chhatrapur, Kendrapara, and Bhadrak, lie within the ecoregion. According to the WWF, 96% of the ecoregion's area has been cleared, and only 4% remains in semi-evergreen rain forest. Much of the remaining forest has been degraded by grazing and fuelwood harvesting.
Famous quotes containing the word forests:
“I have, indeed, even omitted facts, which, on account of their singularity, must in the eyes of some have appeared to border on the marvelous. But in the forests of South America such extraordinary realities are to be found, that there is assuredly no need to have recourse to fiction or the least exaggeration.”
—J.G. (John Gabriel)