In
historical records, the kingdom was called the
'Valley of Medicinal Herbs', a name that still
applies to this day. About 72.5 per cent of
the country's area is under forest cover. For
centuries, Bhutanese have treasured the natural
environment and have looked upon it as the source
of all life. This traditional reverence for
nature has delivered Bhutan into the 20th century
with an environment still richly intact. The
country wishes to continue living in harmony
with nature and to pass on this rich heritage
to its future generations.
Flora
An astonishing array of plants grows in Bhutan
: over 5400 species, including 300 species of
medicinal plants and over 50 species of rhododendrons.
Of the more than 600 species of orchid, most
are commonly found up to 2,100m, although some
hardy species thrive even above 3,700m. Tropical
evergreen forests growing below 800m are repositories
of unique bio-diversity. The next vegetation
zone is the subtropical grassland and forests
found between 900m and 1,800m. The tree rhododendron
is found in this zone, along with forest of
oak, walnut and sal, and numerous variety of
orchid.
Temperate zone is a region of great diversity,
largely influenced by the elevation. The tropical
vegetation of the lower zones gives way to dark
forests of oak, birch, maple, magnolia and laurel.
Above 2,400 altitude is the home of spruce,
yew, and weeping cypress, and higher still,
growing up to the tree line, is the east Himalayan
fir. Between the tree line and the snow line
at about 5,500m are low shrubs, rhododendrons,
Himalayan grasses and flowering herbs. Bhutan's
national flower, Blue Poppy grows above the
tree line 3,500 - 4,500m elevation and can be
found atop some high passes from the far eastern
parts of the country all the way across to the
west.
Fauna
Because of its unique setting and relatively
un-exploited environment, Bhutan probably possesses
the greatest biological diversity of any country
of its size in Asia. It certainly contains some
of the best remaining representatives of habitat
types found in the Himalayas. Along its southern
border, the narrow tropical and subtropical
belt supports the Asiatic elephant, greater
one-horned rhinoceros, gaur, wild water buffalo,
hog deer, tiger, clouded leopard, hornbill,
trogon and other mammals and birds characteristic
of indomalayan species. Only 150 kilometres
to the north, high Himalayan fauna include the
blue sheep, takin, musk deer, snow leopard,
wolf and other species characteristic of the
Palearctic realm. So far as 770 species of birds
have been recorded in Bhutan, which reflects
the Kingdom's wide range of agro-ecological
environments - from subtropical to alpine and
its location at the northern edge of the Zoogeographical
oriental region and the permeable and fluid
border with China.
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