Shola is a type of high-altitue stunted evergreen forest found in southern India. Patches of shola forest are usually separated from one another by undulating grassland. Together the shola and grassland form the shola-grassland complex or shola-grassland mosaic. Shola forests are found only in the southern portion of the Western Ghats mountains of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu states, in the South Western Ghats montane rain forests ecoregion. The word 'shola' is probably derived from the Tamil word solai, meaning 'thicket' or 'bamboo clump'.