Jungle refers to the most dense, more or less impenetrable regions within a tropical rainforest with an abundance of animal and plant life. The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which refers to uncultivated land,[1] among other meanings. The term is prevalent in many languages of the Indian subcontinent and particularly Urdu and Hindi.
The term jungle may still be used in technical contexts to describe the rainforest biome, a forest characterised by extensive biodiversity and densely tangled undergrowth including the young trees, vines and lianas, and herbaceous plants
About 6% of the Earth's land mass consists of the ecosystems that could qualify as jungle under the common usage of the word. 57% of all species live in jungle environments.[2] In common usage, forests of northern Thailand or southern Guangdong in China would qualify, but scientifically, these are "monsoon forests" or "tropical deciduous forests" but not "rain forests".
As a forest biome, jungles are present in both equatorial and tropical climatic zones, and are associated with preclimax stages of the rainforest. In another technical context, jungle is distinguished from tropical rainforest in that the former is a profuse thicket of tropical shrubs, vines, and small trees growing in areas outside the light-blocking canopy of a tropical rainforest. Hence, jungles are often found at the edges of climax rain-forests, where human activity may increase sunlight penetration