Explanatory Booklet on the Forest Map of South India. Sheets: Belgaum-Dharwar-Panaji, Shimoga, Mercara-Mysore.

This explanatory booklet accompanies the three northernmost sheets of the Forest Maps of South India published in 1982 by the French Institute of Pondicherry, and updated in 1997, which cover at the scale of 1:250,000, the main forest regions of the central Western Ghats, in Goa, Karnataka and Northern Kerala: Belgaum-Darwar Panaji (sheet n°1), Shimoga (sheet n°2), Mercara Mysore (sheet n°3). It introduces the main concepts and methodology of this vegetation mapping exercise, as well as the particular bioclimatic features and forest successions that determine the patterns of vegetation in the Western Ghats region, which along with Sri Lanka constitutes one of the 34 world biodiversity hotspots. Each forest type is then described in terms of physiognomy, structure, floristic composition and diversity. Degradation and secondary stages as well as relationships between forest types are also presented. A complete list of species established for each forest type from an intensive fieldwork is also given, along with indications of species ecological preference, phenology, frequency, etc. Interpreted from Landsat imageries, the vegetation maps show the actual state of the forests, their environmental conditions (climatic, edaphic, biotic, administrative) and their potentialities, according to standard codification used for international vegetation mapping.