The Northwestern thorn scrub forests are a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion of Pakistan and northwestern India. The ecoregion encircles the Thar Desert and Indus Valley Desert ecoregions. It includes the western half of Gujarat (excluding the mountain of Girnar), and extending through Rajasthan, where it is bounded on the southeast by the Aravalli Range. It encompasses most of Haryana and Punjab states of India as well as the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, extending to the foothills of the Himalayas. In Pakistan, the ecoregion covers most of Punjab province, extending into easternmost Northwest Frontier and Baluchistan provinces and western Sind. Introduction Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests is a biome located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. ... Ecoregions are defined by World Wildlife Fund as relatively large units of land or water containing a distinct assemblage of natural communities and species, with boundaries that approximate the original extent of natural communities prior to major land-use change. Terrestrial ecoregions are land ecoregions, as distinct from freshwater ecoregions... The Thar Desert (also known as the Great Indian Desert) is a desert located in the state of Rajasthan in northwest India. ... Gujarat (ગુજરાત in Gujarati) is the most industrialized state in India after Maharashtra and is located in western India, bordered by Pakistan to the northwest and Rajasthan to the north. ... Girnar, a scenic mountain range in Gujarat, India, rises to above 6000 meters, the highest peaks in Gujarat. ... The Aravalli Range is a range of mountains in western India running approximately 300 miles northeast-southwest across Rajasthan state. ... Haryana (हरयाणा) is a state in northwest India. ... Punjab (ਪੰਜਾਬ, पंजाब) is a state in northwest India, part of a larger Punjab region. ... Jammu is one of the three regions comprising the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. ... The dark-brown region represents the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir is the northern-most province of the Republic of India, with Srinagar as its capital and Jammu as its winter-capital. ... Punjab, 1903 Punjab Province, 1909 The Punjab (Meaning: Land of five Rivers) (also Panjab, Gurmukhi: ਪੰਜਾਬ, Devanagari: पंजाब, Shahmukhi: پنجاب) is a region straddling the border between India and Pakistan. ... North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) is geographically the smallest of the four provinces of Pakistan. ... Baluchistan (or Balochistan), also known as Greater Baluchistan is an arid region of south Asia, presently split between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. ... Sindh (Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. ...

The Northwestern thorn scrub forests are thought to be tropical dry forests that were degraded through intensive agriculture and grazing into stunted and open thorn scrub, dominated by species such as Acacia senegal and A. leucophloea, as well as Prosopis spicigera, Capparis zeylandica, and species of Salvadora, Gymnosporia, Grewia, and Gardenia. Over 90% of the ecoregion has been converted to human use, and the remaining habitat is highly fragmented. Species Gardenia jasminoides Gardenia is a genus and common name of a popular garden and house plant. ...

This ecoregion, together with the Thar Desert and Indus Valley Desert ecoregions, form Udvardy's "Thar Desert" Biogeographic province. Miklos Udvardy proposed classification systems of the world for conservation purposes. ...