Northeast India-Myanmar pine forests


The Northeast India-Myanmar pine forests is a montane subtropical coniferous forest ecoregion in the mountains of Northeastern India and adjacent portions of Myanmar.

Setting

The ecoregion covers an area of 9700 km² of the Naga Hills that with the Patkai and the Manipur Hills form part of the Burmese-Java arc of folded mountains that run south-east of the Himalayas and make up the India-Myanmar border region. The pine forests are found between 1500 and 2500 meters elevation, and occur in three separate enclaves. The largest enclave straddles the boundary between India's Nagaland state and Myanmar, and the two smaller enclaves grows in the southern part of India's Mizoram state, also along the Myanmar border. The pine forests are surrounded at lower elevations by the predominantly broadleaf Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rain forests and are part of the huge Burma Monsoon Forest transition zone between the South Asia and Indochina regions.

Flora

The pine forests forms a habitat that is rare in the Indomalayan realm. Tenasserim pine ' is the dominant species at lower elevations, sometimes associated with dipterocarps. At higher elevations, Khasi pine ' and blue pine ' are the predominant species, associated with other evergreens including hemlocks ' and firs ', and broadleaf trees, including oaks ' and maples ', while Rhododendron, Ilex, Prunus, and bamboo ' are common understory shrubs.

Fauna

Although home to a smaller variety of wildlife than the surrounding rainforest these pine forests are relatively unspoilt and therefore still important habitat for a number of species adapted to the rocky heights. When the area was surveyed by the Wildlife Conservation Society in the 1950s mammals of the pine forest included Sumatran serow ', sambar ', Indian muntjac ', wild boar ', and Asian black bear ' while smaller mammals include Oriental giant squirrels, Indian giant flying squirrel and civets. None of these mammals are endemic to this ecoregion.
Birds reported in the survey include the silver-breasted broadbill ', white-naped yuhina ', rufous-vented tit ', stripe-throated yuhina ', a number of Old World babblers, grey-sided laughingthrush ', rufous-chinned laughingthrush ', striated laughingthrush ', purple and green cochoas, beautiful nuthatch ', sultan tit ', some leafbirds and white-browed fulvetta ' while large numbers of shelduck and bar-headed goose were seen on the Chindwin River. Two more species of laughingthrush are thought to be endemic to these mountains: brown-capped laughingthrush ' and striped laughingthrush .

Threats and preservation

These mountains have been poorly researched since the 1950s, when it was noted that patches were being systematically cleared for farming and this shifting cultivation continues today resulting in soil erosion and loss of habitat for wildlife. However, as there has been no commercial logging, it appears that the pine forests remain fairly intact even today.