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More than 75% of Karnataka’s area is categorised as a dry zone, comprising semi-arid and arid regions, based on the average annual rainfall it receives. The naturally occurring vegetation covering this geographical expanse, which includes native species of trees, climbers and shrubs, has shrunk to 10% of its area, as per a report released in the Quarterly Journal of Forestry and Allied Sciences, Karnataka forest department. The study underlines that owing to pressure from illegal removal of firewood and small timber, overgrazing, recurrent fires and encroachments among others, vegetation in three-fourths of Karnataka’s land kept getting decimated, resulting in the formation of ‘scrub forests’.