Central Deccan Plateau Dry Deciduous Forests Some of the larger species mentioned here are rare, as is the threatened Indian giant squirrel ("Ratufa indica"). The 300 species of birds include the globally threatened Jerdon's courser ("Rhinoptilus bitorquatus"), which was rediscovered in 1986 having been thought extinct for nearly a hundred years. About 80 percent of the natural habitat in the ecoregion has been lost. Several blocks of habitat larger than 5,000 km remain. Fifteen protected areas cover almost 3% of the ecoregion's area, with Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve as the largest. Central Deccan Plateau Dry Deciduous Forests The Central Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests southern India, containing
Kaiparowits Plateau identified in the Kaiparowits Formation. As recently as 2007, the characterization of an unusual species of "Gryposaurus", a duck-billed dinosaur, was announced. Fossils of the giant crocodilian Deinosuchus have also been found. Early settlers of the region mined certain parts of the plateau for coal in the 1870s and 1880s. The Spencer mine opened in 1913, reportedly to fuel gold mining activities along the Paria River. In 1965, the Southern California Edison Company proposed the construction of a 3000 megawatt coal-fired generation plant within the Kaiparowits Plateau. Kaiparowits Plateau The Kaiparowits Plateau is a large, elevated landform located in southern