South Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests
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The South Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests is an ecoregion of southern India. The ecoregion lies in the eastern foothills of the Western Ghats; the dry forests lie in the Ghats' rain shadow, and receive considerably less rainfall than the North Western Ghats moist deciduous forests and South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests that lie to the west. The ecoregion covers the southern portion of Karnataka's Malnad region, extending south into the Kongu Nadu region of eastern Tamil Nadu.
The South Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests receive most of their rainfall with the June-September southwest monsoon, and are characterized by tall trees that drop their leaves during the dry winter and spring months. Much of the forest has been degraded through over-use, and thorn forests and shrub thickets are common. To the north and east, the dry deciduous forests transition to the Deccan thorn scrub forests.
The ecoregion includes the cities of Bangalore and Mysore in Karnataka, and Coimbatore, Karur, and Salem in Tamil Nadu.
