| Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests | |
|---|---|
 Crop fields in Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan | |
 Map of the Northwestern thorn scrub forests ecoregion | |
| Ecology | |
| Realm | Indomalayan |
| Biome | deserts and xeric shrublands |
| Borders | |
| Geography | |
| Area | 486,906 km2 (187,995 sq mi) |
| Countries | |
| states of India & provinces of Pakistan | List |
| Conservation | |
| Conservation status | critical/endangered |
| Protected | 20,150 km2 (4%)[1] |
The Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests, formerly known as Northwestern thorn scrub forests, is a xeric shrubland ecoregion of Pakistan and Northern India, stretching along the border lowlands and hills between the two countries. Once covered in deciduous forest, this ecoregion has been degraded through agriculture and the extraction of timber so that it currently has a scanty covering of thorny scrub dominated by such trees as Acacia senegal, Acacia leucophloea and Prosopis cineraria. Where the soils are particularly saline, there are patches of semi-desert. A number of mammals are found in this habitat, including about four hundred species of bird. Some small areas are protected but the collection of firewood and the conversion of the land to subsistence farming continues.[2][3]
- ^ Eric Dinerstein, David Olson, et al. (2017). An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 6, June 2017, Pages 534–545; Supplemental material 2 table S1b. [1]
- ^ Dinerstein, Eric; Olson, David; Joshi, Anup; Vynne, Carly; Burgess, Neil D.; Wikramanayake, Eric; Hahn, Nathan; Palminteri, Suzanne; Hedao, Prashant; Noss, Reed; Hansen, Matt (June 2017). "An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm". BioScience. 67 (6): 534–545. doi:10.1093/biosci/bix014. ISSN 0006-3568. PMC 5451287. PMID 28608869.
- ^ Wikramanayake, Eric. "Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests". oneearth.org. Retrieved 11 October 2024.