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Ekatra

Understand our ecology

What is an ecoregion?

Think of an ecoregion as nature’s own map, drawn not by human borders, but by climate, terrain, geology, and the plants and animals that have evolved together in a place over long stretches of time. An ecoregion represents what a landscape would naturally look like before large-scale land-use change: where soil type, rainfall, temperature, and topography together decide which species can thrive where.

Gujarat: one of India’s most ecologically layered states

With an astonishing range of landscapes, Gujarat comprises a coastline over 1,200 km long, one of the largest salt deserts in the world, dry scrub hills, and a moist forest at its southern tip. Broadly, Gujarat spans five terrestrial ecoregions:

Ahmedabad — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests; Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests Amreli — Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests Anand — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests Aravalli — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests; Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests Banaskantha — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests; Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests; Rann of Kutch Seasonal Salt Marsh Bharuch — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests; Indus River Delta–Arabian Sea Mangroves Bhavnagar — Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests; Indus River Delta–Arabian Sea Mangroves Botad — Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests Chhota Udaipur — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests Dahod — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests Dang — North Western Ghats Moist Deciduous Forests Devbhumi Dwarka — Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests; Indus River Delta–Arabian Sea Mangroves Gandhinagar — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests; Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests Gir Somnath — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests Jamnagar — Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests; Indus River Delta–Arabian Sea Mangroves Junagadh — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests; Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests Kheda — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests Kutch — Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests; Rann of Kutch Seasonal Salt Marsh; Indus River Delta–Arabian Sea Mangroves Mahisagar — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests Mehsana — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests; Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests Morbi — Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests; Rann of Kutch Seasonal Salt Marsh; Indus River Delta–Arabian Sea Mangroves Narmada — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests; North Western Ghats Moist Deciduous Forests Navsari — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests; North Western Ghats Moist Deciduous Forests; Indus River Delta–Arabian Sea Mangroves Panchmahal — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests Patan — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests; Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests; Rann of Kutch Seasonal Salt Marsh Porbandar — Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests; Indus River Delta–Arabian Sea Mangroves Rajkot — Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests Sabarkantha — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests; Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests Surat — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests; North Western Ghats Moist Deciduous Forests; Indus River Delta–Arabian Sea Mangroves Surendranagar — Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests; Rann of Kutch Seasonal Salt Marsh Tapi — North Western Ghats Moist Deciduous Forests Vadodara — Khathiar–Gir Dry Deciduous Forests Valsad — North Western Ghats Moist Deciduous Forests; Indus River Delta–Arabian Sea Mangroves Vav-Tharad — Aravalli West Thorn Scrub Forests; Rann of Kutch Seasonal Salt Marsh Ahmedabad Amreli Anand Aravalli Banaskantha Bharuch Bhavnagar Botad Chhota Udaipur Dahod Dang Devbhumi Dwarka Gandhinagar Gir Somnath Jamnagar Junagadh Kheda Kutch Mahisagar Mehsana Morbi Narmada Navsari Panchmahal Patan Porbandar Rajkot Sabarkantha Surat Surendranagar Tapi Vadodara Valsad Vav-Tharad Ahmedabad

Where does Ahmedabad fit in?

Ahmedabad sits between the Khathiar–Gir dry deciduous forests and Aravalli west thorn scrub forests ecoregion.

Knowing this ecoregion is the starting point for everything else in this repository: it’s the reference point against which we identify which species are truly native to the Ahmedabad area, rather than merely present here.

Why species distribution isn’t random — knowing your ecoregion

What grows in the Aravalli hills isn’t what grows in the Rann of Kutch, even though both are technically “Gujarat.” To make sense of this, ecologists group land into ecoregions: large areas that share a distinct set of species, climate, geology, and terrain. This repository uses the ecoregion approach to help you understand which species naturally belong around Ahmedabad, and why.