Forest Types of Nagaland

Nagaland is endowed with a wide variety of forest types. This is due to the variation in elevation which ranges from a few hundred meters up to about four thousand meters.

The following are the forest types found in Nagaland:

(i) Northern Tropical Wet Evergreen Forests

It is found only in Mon District.
These forests were once found abundant in Namsa- Tizit area but now only a small vestige is found in the Zankam area.
The dominant species found in this forest are Hollong (Dipterocarpus macrocarpus), Makai ( Shorea assamica), Nahor ( Mesua ferae ) etc.

(ii) Northern Tropical Semi Evergreen Forests

This type of forests are found in the foothills of Assam-Nagaland border in Mokokchung, Wokha and Kohima Districts.
Deciduous species like Bhelu, Paroli, Jutuli etc. dominate this type of forest.
In this type of forest, the species found in Northern Tropical Wet Evergreen Forests area also found but deciduous species are more dominant.

(iii) Northern Sub-tropical Broad Leaved Wet Hill Forests

This type of forests are found in the hill areas with elevation between 500 m – 1800 m in all the districts of Nagaland.
Dominant species are mostly semi-deciduous. Some of the important timber species in this type are – Koroi, Pomas, Sopas, Gamari, Gogra, Khokan, Hollok, Sam, Am, Badam, Betula etc.

(iv) Northern Sub-tropical Pine Forests

This types of forests are found in hill elevation of 1000 meters to 1500 meters in parts of Phek and Tuensang Districts of Nagaland.
Pine is the dominant species along with other species such as Quercus, Schima, Prunus, Betula and Rhododendron.

(v) Northern Montane Wet- temperate Forests

This type of forests are found on the higher reaches of the tallest mountains in Nagaland above 2000 meters in – Japfu, Saramati, Satoi, Chentang ranges.
The species are typically evergreen with Quercus, Michelia, Magnolia, Prunus, Schima, Alnus and Betula.

(vi) Temperate Forests

This type of forests are found in peaks of the tallest mountains above 2500 meters like Saramati and Dzukou area.
The species that dominate are Rhododendron, Patches of Juniperus coxie and Birch.