Tropical Deciduous Forest: Characteristics, Types (Moist and Dry) and Trees

A tropical deciduous forest is a warm forest whose trees shed their leaves in the dry season and grow new ones when the rains return. It is also called a monsoon forest. In India it is the most common forest of all, split into a wetter moist type and a drier dry type.

This page is part of our guide to the types of forests of the world. It covers the features, rainfall, two main kinds and common trees of this forest. For India’s full set of forest groups, see the forest types of India.

What is a tropical deciduous forest?

The word deciduous means “falling off”. A deciduous tree loses all or nearly all its leaves for part of the year. In cold countries, trees do this before winter. In the tropics, the trigger is drought, not cold.

A leafy tree loses water through tiny pores in its leaves. When the soil dries out after the rains, a tree in full leaf would soon wilt. By dropping its leaves, it cuts that water loss and rests until the next wet season.

That is why these forests are linked so closely to the monsoon, the seasonal wind that brings a burst of rain followed by dry months. In India, the forest is green and dense during and after the rains. Late in the dry season, many trees stand bare.

Tropical deciduous forests sit between two other tropical forests. On their wetter side lie the dense evergreen forests. On their drier side lie thorn forests and scrub. The point-by-point contrast with evergreen forests is on our page about the difference between tropical evergreen and deciduous forests.

Characteristics and distribution of tropical deciduous forests

Main characteristics

• Seasonal leaf fall. Most trees go bare in the dry months. New leaves usually appear shortly before or with the rains.
• Warm all year. FAO describes its tropical domain as a belt where every month averages above 18 °C.
• Wet and dry seasons. Rain comes mainly in the summer monsoon, then a long dry spell follows.
• Broad leaves. The trees have wide, flat leaves, not needles.
• More open canopy. The canopy is usually more open than in a rainforest. More sunlight reaches the ground, so grasses, shrubs and bamboo grow below.
• Valuable timber. Teak and sal, two of India’s best-known timber trees, grow here.
• Fire in the dry season. Dry fallen leaves burn easily. ISFR 2023, citing an earlier FSI study, says severe fires are common in many Indian forest types, especially dry deciduous forests.

Where are tropical deciduous forests found in India?

NCERT’s Class 11 book India: Physical Environment calls tropical deciduous forests the most widespread forests in India. Its distribution of the two kinds is as follows:

• Moist deciduous: north-eastern states along the foothills of the Himalayas, the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats, and Odisha.
• Dry deciduous: rainier areas of the Peninsula and the plains of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

In simple words, they cover much of central and peninsular India. They also form the foothill belt where the Himalayas meet the plains.

Where are they found in the rest of the world?

FAO’s global ecological zoning, prepared for its Forest Resources Assessment 2000, maps two matching zones:

• Tropical moist deciduous forest lies roughly 5-15 degrees north and south of the Equator. FAO’s examples are the monsoon forest of Asia, the cerrado of South America and the wetter Miombo woodlands of Africa.
• Tropical dry forest lies roughly 15-20 degrees on either side of the Equator, and FAO says it is most extensive in Africa. Examples include the caatinga and chaco of South America and dry deciduous dipterocarp forest in Asia.

How much rainfall does a tropical deciduous forest get?

NCERT gives India’s figures. Deciduous forests grow where yearly rainfall lies between 70 and 200 cm. Within that range, NCERT places moist deciduous forests at 100-200 cm and dry deciduous forests at 70-100 cm.

FAO uses millimetres and also counts the dry months:

Note that 1,000 mm equals 100 cm. The two sets of numbers come from different studies, so they do not match exactly. For Indian exams, quote NCERT’s bands.

The total matters, but so does timing. These forests do not get steady rain in every month. Most of it falls in one rainy season, and the dry months that follow decide how long the trees stay bare.

What are the two types of tropical deciduous forest?

NCERT divides India’s tropical deciduous forests by how much water is available.

Moist deciduous forests

Moist deciduous forests are the wetter, richer kind. Their trees are taller and grow closer together. Teak and sal dominate many stretches, mixed with shisham, mahua and sandalwood. Because rain is plentiful, the bare season is shorter than in the dry type.

Dry deciduous forests: India’s most extensive forest type

Dry deciduous forests are the drier kind of monsoon forest. According to ISFR 2023, the tropical dry deciduous group covers 2,80,580 km². That is the largest area of all the 16 forest type groups used by the Forest Survey of India.

NCERT describes how these forests look. In the wetter parts of the Peninsular plateau and the northern plain, they form a parkland: open stretches where teak and other trees stand among patches of grass. When the dry season starts, the trees lose every leaf. The forest then looks like a vast grassland with bare trees scattered across it.

On their wetter edge, dry deciduous forests merge into moist deciduous ones. On their drier edge, they pass into thorn forest. In western and southern Rajasthan, NCERT notes that the cover is very thin because of low rainfall and overgrazing.

Dry deciduous forests also hold a lot of wood overall. ISFR 2023 gives them the largest growing stock of any forest type group, 1,067.55 million m³. Per hectare, though, they hold just 38.05 m³.

Which trees grow in tropical deciduous forests?

The trees below are the ones NCERT names for India’s deciduous forests. Sal and teak are the most important.

ISFR 2023 shows how much these forests depend on sal and teak. Inside India’s recorded forest area, sal holds 11.43 percent of the total growing stock, the most of any species. Teak comes second at 4.46 percent.

Tropical deciduous, temperate etc. are examples of which ecosystem?

This is a common objective question. The answer is the forest ecosystem, which is a terrestrial (land) ecosystem.

NCERT’s Class 12 Biology book, in its chapter “Ecosystem”, sorts ecosystems into two basic groups: terrestrial and aquatic. It lists forest, grassland and desert as terrestrial examples. Tropical deciduous, tropical evergreen and temperate forests are all kinds of forest ecosystem.

Why are tropical deciduous forests important?

• Timber and fuel. Sal and teak supply much of India’s valuable hardwood.
• Forest produce. Local people collect tendu leaves, mahua flowers, fruits and medicinal plants.
• Wildlife. Deer, wild pigs, monkeys and big cats live here. Our list of deciduous forest animals explains how they cope with the dry season.
• Soil and water. Tree roots hold the soil in place during heavy monsoon downpours.
• A buffer against desert. On their dry margins, these forests separate wetter regions from thorn scrub.

Their biggest threats are dry-season fire, overgrazing and clearing for farms. Thin cover in parts of Rajasthan shows what happens when grazing pressure is high.

Leaf fall is not unique to the tropics. In cooler countries, oak and maple shed their leaves before a cold winter instead. Compare our article on the temperate deciduous forest.