How many terrestrial ecoregions does India have? The ERA-India website has adopted an ecoregion framework for ecological restoration. As the FAQs page indicates:

Ecoregions are relatively large units of land containing a distinct assemblage of natural communities and species, approximating the original extent of natural communities before major land-use change or degradation, and which are different from neighboring ecoregions. One can imagine ecoregions to be like an original ‘canvas painted by nature and informed by the distribution of plants and animals, the effects of mountain ranges, and other geographic and climatic features that determine “who lives where” in the natural world.’

This is a better approach than using only forest types, as that would ignore non-forest ecosystems, or categories such as biomes that are too broad. It is also more helpful than land-use and land cover maps that only feature current use rather than what kind of ecosystems can be  potentially restored in an area. So its would be useful to understand the ecoregions that India has. Wikipedia has a List of Ecoregions of India that includes terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecoregions. Among the terrestrial ecoregions 46 are listed on Wikipedia, but there are small bits of 5 other ecoregions that could be considered within India (taking the total to 51). The entire list of 51 is provided below (and can be explored on the map on this website), which includes brief overviews of each ecoregion. A helpful and more detailed Ecoregion Profile including lists of native plant species is available for several ecoregions, and can be accessed using links below (links will be updated as more become available). 

1. Andaman Islands rain forests
2. Baluchistan xeric woodlands
3. Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests
4. Central Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests
5. Central Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe
6. Chhota-Nagpur dry deciduous forests
7. Chin Hills-Arakan Yoma montane forests
8. Deccan thorn scrub forests
9. Rock and Ice
10. East Deccan dry-evergreen forests
11. East Deccan moist deciduous forests
12. Eastern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows
13. Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests
14. Eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests
15. Godavari-Krishna mangroves
16. Himalayan subtropical broadleaf forests
17. Himalayan subtropical pine forests
18. Indus River Delta-Arabian Sea mangroves
19. Karakoram-West Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe
20. Khathiar-Gir dry deciduous forests
21. Lower Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests
22. Malabar Coast moist forests
23. Maldives-Lakshadweep-Chagos Archipelago tropical moist forests
24. Meghalaya subtropical forests
25. Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rain forests
26. Narmada Valley dry deciduous forests
27. Nicobar Islands rain forests
28. North Tibetan Plateau-Kunlun Mountains alpine desert
29. North Western Ghats moist deciduous forests
30. North Western Ghats montane rain forests
31. Northeast India-Myanmar pine forests
32. Northeast Himalayan subalpine conifer forests
33. North Deccan dry deciduous forests
34. Northern Triangle temperate forests
35. Northwestern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows
36. Aravalli west thorn scrub forests
37. Orissa semi-evergreen forests
38. Pamir alpine desert and tundra
39. Rann of Kutch seasonal salt marsh
40. South Deccan Plateau dry deciduous forests
41. South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests
42. South Western Ghats montane rain forests
43. Sundarbans freshwater swamp forests
44. Sundarbans mangroves
45. Terai-Duar savanna and grasslands
46. Thar desert
47. Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests
48. Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows
49. Western Himalayan broadleaf forests
50. Western Himalayan subalpine conifer forests
51. Yarlung Zanbo arid steppe

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@trsraman thanks for sharing this list.