Climate change patterns reshaping India's central forests

A new study finds that the Panchmarhi Biosphere Reserve (PBR) in India lost about 13% of its forest cover between 1972 and 2020, driven by both climate shifts and human pressures.

- Meena Janardhan

As highlighted by a Mongabay-India (MI) report, the study is part of a larger project studying the diversity of 762 forest plots in Central India, to generate an ecological baseline for the region.The MI report points out that over decades, the tropical deciduous forests of central India have weathered the impacts of a quietly changing climate. New research sheds light on the extent to which long-term changes in temperature and precipitation transformed a protected area in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, in addition to the anthropogenic pressures caused by tree felling, extraction, and grazing.

The forests of central India occupy a vast landscape, stretching over an area of more than 40,837 square kilometres across Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh. Though famed for having a robust tiger population, this region is also home to some of the country's largest contiguous forested tracts. The PBR sits at the heart of this landscape.

Predictable monsoons and stable temperatures have helped this region’s forests sustain and regenerate for centuries, the MI report adds. The lifecycles of tropical deciduous forests are deeply tied to seasons — typically shedding leaves in the dry seasons and greening in the wetter months, depending on the species.