Jungle refers usually to a dense forest in a hot climate.

It originated from a Sanskrit word jangala, meaning wilderness. In many languages of the Indian subcontinent, including Indian English it is generally used to refer to any wild, untended or uncultivated land, including forest, scrub, or desert landscapes.

Sometimes an urban environment can be called a jungle, as "concrete jungle".

The term may still be used in a technical context to describe the forest biome rainforest, a forest characterised by extensive biodiversity and densely tangled plants such as trees, vines, grasses, and also various roses. As a forest biome, "jungles" are present in both equatorial and tropical climatic zones, and are associated with preclimax stages of the rainforest.

Jungles in western culture

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Some consider the use of the term (which may sometimes be accompanied with adjectives such as "dark" or "steamy", et cetera), to be not so much a neutral description of a natural habitat as an evocation of a social construct which is part of the cultural imagination. Many examples of this concept can be found in art and literature: the fanciful jungle paintings of Henri Rousseau, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, and Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

See also

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• Rainforest
• Forest
• Indian Forest

External links

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• Link illustrating Biomes

forests | biomes

Jungla | Jungle Dschungel Jungla Ĝangalo Jungle Džungla ג'ונגל Oerwoud جاڭگلا Dżungla Selva Джунгли Jungle Djungel 叢林