East Deccan dry-evergreen forests

The Central Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests stretch across the central and southern Deccan Plateau of peninsular India, lying mostly within Maharashtra and Telangana and reaching into Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh. Unlike the teak and sal forests elsewhere on the plateau, these woodlands are characteristically dominated by Hardwickia binata and Albizia amara, with companion trees such as Boswellia serrata, Anogeissus latifolia, and Acacia catechu beneath a canopy of roughly fifteen to twenty-five meters. The climate is strongly seasonal: the Hardwickia trees drop their leaves through the winter dry season and flush again in April, and the western reaches sit in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats. The forests still shelter Bengal tigers, dholes, sloth bears, gaur, and blackbuck, along with around 300 recorded bird species, among them the globally threatened Jerdon's courser, an India-endemic nightbird rediscovered in 1986 after being feared extinct. Much of the ecoregion has been cleared, however, and it is classed as critical or endangered, so gardeners drawing on its hardy natives, including the frankincense tree Boswellia and drought-tolerant Albizia, are working with plants adapted to a long, pronounced dry season.

The Central Indochina dry forests form a large tropical dry-forest ecoregion sprawling across the plateaus and low river basins of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, taking in the Khorat Plateau, the uplands around the Chao Phraya basin, and the foothills of the Tenasserim Range. Its signature habitat is open deciduous dipterocarp woodland, dominated by Dipterocarpus trees that drop their leaves through the dry season above a sparse, grassy understory. The climate is strongly monsoonal, with roughly 1,000 to 1,500 mm of rainfall concentrated in the wet months followed by a long dry season of five to seven months, during which frequent ground fires sweep the undergrowth and help shape the forest. Until the mid-20th century these savanna-like woodlands rivaled East African plains for their herds of large mammals, including Asian elephants, banteng, gaur, and the sambar deer that serves as the ecoregion's flagship species. Conservation pressure is severe: much original forest has been cleared, only a small fraction is protected, and the endemic wild cattle known as the kouprey is now believed to be globally extinct.

The Chhota-Nagpur dry deciduous forests blanket the Chhota-Nagpur Plateau of eastern India, covering most of Jharkhand and reaching into Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. Because the plateau catches less rain than surrounding lowlands, its dry deciduous woodland is dominated by sal (Shorea robusta) alongside Anogeissus, Terminalia, Lagerstroemia, mahua (Madhuca longifolia), teak (Tectona grandis), and flame of the forest (Butea monosperma), over an understory of shrubs and grasses. The climate is strongly monsoonal, with most of the roughly 1,400 mm of annual rainfall falling between June and September; winters are cool with the occasional sub-freezing night, while summer days turn warm to hot. The region remains an important refuge for tiger and Asian elephant and harbors the sloth bear as a flagship species, with protected blocks such as the Palamau Tiger Reserve.

The Irrawaddy dry forests occupy the arid heart of central Myanmar, spanning portions of the Irrawaddy, Sittaung, and Salween river basins across several administrative divisions. This is a patchwork of dipterocarp woodland and thorny scrub, characterized by drought-tolerant trees such as Dipterocarpus tuberculatus, Shorea, the native teak Tectona hamiltoniana, Terminalia oliveri, and Senegalia (Acacia) catechu, with tall bamboos like Dendrocalamus strictus widespread. The climate is harsh and dry, receiving well under 800 mm of annual rainfall that arrives sporadically and torrentially from mid-July through October, with rarely more than about fifteen rain-days a year. Despite this severity the region harbors notable endemics, including the critically endangered Popa langur and near-endemic birds such as the white-throated babbler and hooded racket-tailed treepie, while serving as a key refuge for the rare Burmese starred tortoise; less than one percent of the ecoregion lies within protected areas, making it one of the more imperiled dry forests of the realm. Gardeners in hot, low-rainfall climates may recognize several genera native here, including teak (Tectona) and Bauhinia, valued ornamentally elsewhere.

The Khathiar-Gir dry deciduous forests cover a broad, mostly arid swath of northwestern India, stretching across the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh and taking in the Aravalli Range (crowned by Mount Abu), the Kathiawar Peninsula, and the Gir Hills. The vegetation is dry deciduous woodland: teak (Tectona grandis) along with bael (Aegle marmelos), silk-cotton, Boswellia, and Diospyros in the less arid zones, giving way to hardy Anogeissus pendula and khair (Acacia catechu) on drier, rocky ground. The climate is hot and arid, with most of the 550 to 700 mm of annual rain falling during the June-to-September southwest monsoon, summer temperatures soaring above 45 degrees Celsius and winter nights dropping near freezing. This is the only ecoregion in Asia that still shelters wild lions, the endangered Asiatic lion of Gir, and it also supports around 80 mammal species and over 300 birds. Much of the original forest has been fragmented, and the WWF classifies the ecoregion as critical or endangered with only a small fraction protected. For gardeners in similarly hot, seasonally dry climates, native trees such as bael (Aegle marmelos) point toward drought-tolerant, monsoon-adapted plantings.

The Narmada Valley dry deciduous forests stretch across central India, concentrated in Madhya Pradesh but reaching into Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh along the Narmada River valley and the adjacent Vindhya and Satpura uplands. This is classic tropical dry broadleaf woodland: a teak-dominated canopy (Tectona grandis) mingled with genera such as Diospyros (Indian ebony), Lagerstroemia, Terminalia, Anogeissus, and Hardwickia, while Terminalia arjuna, Syzygium, and willows line the watercourses. The climate is strongly seasonal, with a seven- to eight-month dry spell broken by the southwest monsoon from June to September that delivers roughly 1,200 to 1,500 mm of rain, prompting trees to shed their leaves to conserve moisture. The region shelters tiger, gaur, sloth bear, blackbuck, and its flagship the Indian wolf, alongside birds like the threatened lesser florican and Indian bustard, though much of the forest is now reduced and dam-fragmented. For gardeners, several of its natives, including Lagerstroemia and Terminalia, are familiar ornamental and shade genera in warm, monsoon-climate plantings.