Amazon Rainforest

Why in news:

• The Amazon forests in South America, which are the largest tropical forests in the world, have started emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of absorbing carbon emissions.

About Amazon forests:

• Amazon Rainforest, large tropical rainforest occupying the drainage basin of the Amazon River and its tributaries in northern South America and covering an area of 2,300,000 square miles (6,000,000 square km).
• Comprising about 40 percent of Brazil’s total area, it is bounded by the Guiana Highlands to the north, the Andes Mountains to the west, the Brazilian central plateau to the south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.
• The immense extent and great continuity of this rainforest is a reflection of the high rainfall, high humidity, and monotonously high temperatures that prevail in the region.

Flora and Fauna:

• The Amazon Rainforest is the world’s richest and most-varied biological reservoir, containing several million species of insects, plants, birds, and other forms of life, many still unrecorded by science.
• he luxuriant vegetation encompasses a wide variety of trees, including many species of myrtle, laurel, palm, and acacia, as well as rosewood, Brazil nut, mahagony and rubber tree.
• The Amazon Rainforest is home to a bewildering array of wildlife, including macaws, toucans, tyrant flycatchers, capybaras, tapirs, sloths, squirrel monkeys, red howler monkeys, jaguars, caimans, anacondas, tarantulas, leaf-cutter ants, scarlet ibis, and black skimmers.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Which of the following areas account for the largest continuous stretch of rainforests in the world?
(a)Amazon basin
(b)Congo Basin
(c)Eastern Himalayas
(d)Bornean forests

Answer to Prelims Question