jungle

A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jaṅgala, meaning rough and arid. It came into the English language via Hindi in the 18th century. Jāṅgala has also been variously transcribed in English as jangal, jangla, jungal, and juṅgala. Although the Sanskrit word refers to dry land, it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its connotation as a dense "tangled thicket", while others have argued that a cognate word in Urdu derived from Persian, جنگل (Jangal), did refer to forests. The term is prevalent in many languages of the Indian subcontinent, and the Iranian Plateau, where it is commonly used to refer to the plant growth replacing primeval forest or to the unkempt tropical vegetation that takes over abandoned areas. Wildlife Because jungles occur on all inhabited landmasses and may incorporate numerous vegetation and land types in different climatic zones, the wildlife of jungles cannot be straightforwardly defined.