What is "tugay"

Tugay, also spelt tugai, is a form of riparian forest or woodland associated with fluvial and floodplain areas subject to periodic inundation, and largely dependent on floods and groundwater rather than directly from rainfall. Because Tugay habitat is usually linear, following the courses of rivers in arid landscapes, Tugay communities often function as wildlife corridors. Tugay habitats occur in semi-arid and desert climates in the central Asian region and are highly sensitive to changes in water supply, such as abstraction for irrigation, and other anthropogenic effects on the environment. They have disappeared or become fragmented over much of their former range.