Silent Valley National Park

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Silent Valley National Park Silent Valley NP Silent Valley NP (India)
IUCN Category II (National Park)
Location:	Palakkad District, Kerala
Nearest city:	Palakkad,
Coordinates:	11°8′″N, 76°28′″E
Area:	89.52 km²
Established:	26 December 1980
Total Visitation:	10,000 (in 2004)
Governing body:	Kerala Forest Dept.

Silent Valley National Park (89.52 km²) is located in the Nilgiri Hills, Palakkad district, Kerala, in South India.
The park is one of the last undisturbed tracts of South Western Ghats montane rain forests and tropical moist evergreen forest in India.
The park is contiguous with the proposed Karimpuzha National Park (225 km²) to the north and Mukurthi National Park (78.46 km²) to the north-east.
It is the core of the Nilgiri International Biosphere Reserve (1,455.4 km²) and is part of
The Western Ghats World Heritage Site, Nilgiri Sub-Cluster (6,000⁺ km²) under consideration by UNESCO.^[1]

The visitors' center for the park is at Sairandhri.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Save Silent Valley 2 Geography 2.1 Rivers 2.2 Climate 3 Tribes 4 Flora and Fauna 4.1 Birds 4.2 Mammals 4.3 Insects 4.4 Plants 5 Threats 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History

Hindu legend -The area is locally known as "Sairandhrivanam" Literally, in Malayalam: Sairandhri's Valley. In local Hindu legend, Sairandhri is Draupadi, the polyandrous wife of the five Pandavas, who disguised herself as Sairandhri, queen Sudeshna's assistant, while they were in exile.^[2], Listen to the legend about Sairandhri ^[3]. The Pandavas, deprived of their kingdom, set out on a 13-year exile. They wandered south, into what is now Kerala, deeper and deeper into its forests, until one day they came upon a magical valley where rolling grasslands dipped into wooded ravines, where a deep green river bubbled its course through impenetrable forest, where at dawn and twilight the tiger and elephant would drink together at the water's edge, where all was harmonious and man unknown. Beside that river, in a cave on a hill slope, the Pandavas halted.^[4]

English exploration -The first English investigation of the watersheds of the Silent Valley area was in 1847 by the botanist Robert Wight.^[5] The British named the area Silent Valley because of a perceived absence of noisy Cicadas. Another story attributes the name to the anglicisation of Sairandhri. A third story, refers to the presence there of many Lion-Tailed Macaques Macaca silenus.^[6]. In 1914 the forest of the Silent Valley area was declared a Reserve Forest, however, from 1927 to 1976 portions of the Silent Valley forest area were subjected to forestry operations. In 1928 the location on the Kunthipuzha River at Sairandhri was identified as an ideal site for electricity generation and in 1958 a study and survey of the area was conducted and a hydroelectric project of 120 MV costing Rs. 17 Crore was proposed by the Kerala State Electricity Board.

[edit] Save Silent Valley

In 1973 the valley became the focal point of "Save Silent Valley", India's fiercest environmental debate of the decade, when the Kerala State Electricity Board decided to implement the Silent Valley Hydro-Electric Project (SVHEP) centered on a dam across the Kunthipuzha River. The resulting reservoir would flood 8.3 km² of virgin rainforest. In 1976 the Kerala State Electricity Board announced plans to begin dam construction and the issue was brought to public attention. Romulus Whitaker, founder of the Madras Snake Park and the Madras Crocodile Bank, was probably the first person to draw public attention to the small and remote area.^[7]

Park Inaugerated - In 1983 the Hon. Prime Minister of India decided to abandon the Project and on November 15 the Silent Valley forests were declared as a National Park. On September 7, 1985 the Silent Valley National Park was formally inaugurated and a memorial at Sairandhri to Indira Gandhi was unveiled by Shri. Rajiv Gandhi, the new Hon. Prime Minister of India. On September 1, 1986 Silent Valley National Park was designated as the core area of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Since then, a long-term conservation effort has been undertaken to preserve the Silent Valley ecosystem.^[8]

A new Dam Proposal In 2001 a new Hydro project was proposed and the "Man vs. Monkey debate" was revived. The proposed site of the dam (64.5 m high and 275 m long) is just 3.5 km downstream of the old dam site at Sairandhiri, 500 m outside the National Park boundary.^[9]. The Kerala Minister for Electricity called The Pathrakkadavu dam (PHEP) an "eco-friendly alternative" to the old Silent Valley project. The claim was that the submergence area of the PHEP would be a negligible .041 km² compared to 8.30 km² submergence of the 1970s (SVHEP).^[10]. During January to May 2003 a rapid Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was carried out. Little more was heard till Nov. 15, 2006 when Kerala Minister for Forest Binoy Viswam said that the proposed buffer zone for Silent Valley would be declared soon.^[11].

On Feb 21, 2007 Chief Minister A. K. Antony told reporters after a cabinet meeting that "when the Silent Valley proposal was dropped, the centre had promised to give clearance to the Pooyamkutty project. This promise, however, had not been honoured. The Kerala government has not taken any decision on reviving the Silent Valley Hydel Project".^[12]

The Movie - "Only An Axe Away" is a well-researched film documentary on the struggle to preserve the Silent Valley. The film shares the anxiety of the people of Kerala about the future of the Silent Valley. Producer: Third Eye Communications, Director: P. Baburaj and C. Saratchandran, Malayalam/40min/2004/DV.^[13]

[edit] Geography

Silent Valley is rectangular, 7 km (east-west) X 12 km (north-south). It is located between 11^o03’ to 11^o13’ N latitude and 76^o21’ to 76^o35’ E longitude. It is separated from the eastern and northern high altitude plateaus of the (Nilgiris Mountains) by high continuous ridges. The park gradually slopes southward down to the Palakkad plains and to the west it is bounded by irregular ridges. The altitude of the park ranges from 658 m to 2328 m at Anginda peak, but most of the park lies within the altitude range of 880 m to 1200 m. Soils are blackish and slightly acidic in evergreen forests where there is good accumulation of organic matter. The underlying rock in the area is granite with schists and gneiss, which give rise to the loamy laterite soils on slopes.^[14]

[edit] Rivers

The Kuntipuzha River drains the entire 15km length of the park from north to south into the Bharathapuzha River. Kuntipuzha River divides the park into a narrow eastern sector of width 2 kilometers and a wide western sector of 5 kilometers. The river never turns brown and is always crystal clear, perennial and wild. The main tributaries of the river, kunthancholapuzha, Karingathodu, Madrimaranthodu, Valiaparathodu and Kummaathanthodu originate on the upper slopes of the eastern side of the valley. The river is uniformly shallow, with no flood plains or meanders. Its bed falls from 1,861m to 900m over a distance of 12km, the last 8km being particularly level with a fall of only 60m. Kuntipuzha is one of the less torrential rivers of the Western Ghats, with a pesticide-free catchment area.^[15]

[edit] Climate

Silent Valley gets copious amounts of rainfall during the monsoons, but the actual amount varies within the region due the varied topography. The mean annual rainfall ranges from over 5000 mm in the Neelikal area in the west to around 3200 mm on the eastern side of the park. The park being completely enclosed within a ring of hills, has its own micro-climate and probably receives some convectional rainfall, in addition to rain from two monsoons. In general the rainfall is higher at higher altitude and decreases from the west to east due to the rain shadow effect. Eighty per cent of the rainfall occurs during the south-west monsoon between June and September. It also receives significant amount of rainfall during the north-east monsoon between October and November.^[16]

The mean annual temperature is 20.2^o C. The hottest months are April and May when the mean temperature is 23^o C and the coolest months are January and February when the mean temperature is 18^o C. Because of the high rainfall, the relative humidity is consistently high (above 95%) between June and December.^[15]

[edit] Tribes

There is no record the valley has ever been settled, but the Mudugar and Irula^[17] tribal people are indigenous to the area and do live in the adjacent valley of Attappady Reserved Forest.^[18] Also, the Kurumbar people occupy the highest range outside the park bordering on the Nilgiris.^[19].

Many of the Mudugar and Irula now work as day laborers and porters. Some work for the Forest Department in the park as forest guards and visitor guides. 16 out of 21 tribal colonies in the Attappady range are notorious for ganja cultivation. Many Mudugar are in abject poverty and easily recruited by the so called ganja mafia, There is a plan to employ 50 additional men from these 21 tribal settlements as forest guards for Rs.500/man/month.^[20]

[edit] Flora and Fauna

Valley areas of the park are in a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Ecoregion. Hilly areas above 1,000 m are in a South Western Ghats montane rain forests region. Above 1,500 m, the evergreen forests begin to give way to stunted forests, called sholas, interspersed with open grassland. Both are very important to naturalists, biologists and other researchers because the rich biodiversity here has never been disturbed by human settlements. Several threatened species are endemic here. New plant and animal species are often discovered here.

[edit] Birds

Birdlife International lists 16 bird species in Silent Valley as threatened or restricted: Nilgiri Wood-pigeon, Malabar Parakeet, Malabar Grey Hornbill, White-bellied Treepie, Grey-headed Bulbul, Broad-tailed Grassbird, Rufous Babbler, Wynaad Laughing Thrush, Nilgiri Laughing Thrush, White-bellied Shortwing, Black-and-rufous Flycatcher, Nilgiri Flycatcher, White-bellied Blue-flycatcher, Crimson-backed Sunbird and Nilgiri pipit.^[21] accessed 3/24/2007

Rare bird species found here include Ceylon Frogmouth and Great Indian Hornbill . The 2006 winter bird survey discovered Long-legged Buzzard, a new species of raptor at Sispara, the park's highest peak. The survey found 10 endangered species recorded in the IUCN Red List including the Red winged crested cuckoo, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Pale harrier. The area is home to 15 endemic species including the Black-and-orange Flycatcher. It recorded 138 species of birds including 17 species that were newly observed in the Silent Valley area. The most abundant bird was the Black bulbul.^[22]

[edit] Mammals

The threatened mammals at Silent valley include: the Lion-tailed Macaque, Niligiri Langur, Malabar Giant Squirrel, Nilgiri Tahr, Peshwa’s Bat and Hairy-winged Bat which are endemic here.

Distribution and demography of all diurnal primates were studied in Silent Valley National Park and adjacent areas for a period of three years from 1993 to 1996. Fourteen troops of lion-tailed macaque, eighty-five troops of Nilgiri langur, fifteen troops of bonnet macaque and seven troops of Hanuman langur were observed. Of these, the Nilgiri langur was randomly distributed, whereas the lion-tailed macaque troops were confined to the southern sector of the Park. Bonnet macaques and Hanuman langurs were occasional visitors. The Silent Valley forest remains one of the most undisturbed viable habitats left for the endemic and endangered primates lion-tailed macaque and Nilgiri langur.^[23]

The tiger, leopard (panther), leopard cat, jungle cat, fishing cat, Common Palm Civet, Small Indian Civet, Brown Palm Civet, Ruddy Mongoose, Stripe-necked Mongoose, wild dogs, clawless otter, sloth bear, small travancore flying squirrel, Indian pangolin (scaly anteater), porcupine, wild boar, sambar, spotted deer, barking deer, mouse deer and gaur also live here.

[edit] Insects

Over a 100 species of Butterflies and 400 species of moths live here. 7 species of Butterflies were observed migrating in a mixed swarm of thousands of butterflies towards the Silent Valley National Park. In one instance an observer noted several birds attempting to catch these butterflies. The bird species included the Pied Bushchat Saxicola caprata, Nilgiri Pipit Anthus nilghiriensis, Tickell's Warbler Phylloscopus affinis, Greenish Leaf-Warbler Phylloscopus trochiloides and the Oriental White-eye Zosterops palpebrosa.^[24]

[edit] Plants

In addition to facilitating recharge of the aquifer, water retension of the catchment basin and preventing soil erosion, every plant in the park from the smallest one celled algae to the largest tree in the forest has unknown potential for beneficial innovations in biotechnology.

Genetic resources: Throughout human history about 10% of the genetic stock found in the wild has been bred into palatable and higher yielding cereals, fruits and vegetables. Future food security depends on the preservation of the remaining 90% of the stock through protection of high biodiversity habitats like Silent valley..^[25]

The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources of ICAR (India), Plant Exploration and Collection Division^[26]has identified Silent Valley as high in bio-diversity and an important Gene Pool resource for Recombinant DNA innovations. An important example of use of wild germplasm is gene selection from the wild varieties of rice Oryza nivara (Central India) and Oryza Pittambi found in Silent Valley for the traits of broad spectrum disease resistance in high yielding hybrid rice varieties including IR-36, which are responsible for much of the green revolution throughout Asia.^[27]

Also, genetic evaluation of plant growth promoting Rhizobacteria obtained from Silent Valley indicated that strain, IISR 331, could increase the growth of black pepper cuttings by 228% and showed 82.7% inhibition of the common plant wilting disease Phytopthora capsici in laboratory tests (in vitro).^[28]

Flowering plants: Angiosperm flora currently identified here include 966 species belonging to 134 families and 599 genera. There are 701 Dicotyledons distributed among 113 families and 420 genera. There are 265 Monocotyledons here distributed among 21 families and 139 genera. Families best represented are the Orchidaceae (with 108 species), Poaceae (56), Fabaceae (55), Rubiaceae (49) and Asteraceae (45). Seven new plant species have been recorded from Silent Valley, as well as many rare, endemic and economically valuable species, such as cardamom Ellettaria cardamomum, pepper Piper nigrum, yams Dioscorea spp., beans Phaseolus sp., a pest-resistant strain of rice Oryza Pittambi, and 110 plant species of importance in Ayurvedic medicine.^[29]

Trees: Occurrence of lion-tailed macaque is dependent on the flowering of Cullenia exarillata in the forest.^[30]

Six distinct tree associations have been described in the valley.^[31] Three are restricted to the southern sector: [(Cullenia exarillata & Palaquium ellipticum)], [(Palaquium ellipticum & Mesua ferrea(Indian rose chestnut)] and [(Mesua ferrea & Calophyllum elatum)]. The remainder are confined to the central and northern parts of the Park: [(Palaquium ellipticum & Poeciloneuron indicum)], [(Calophyllum elatum & Ochlandra sp.)] and [(Poeciloneuron indicum & Ochlandra sp.)].^[32]

A study of natural regeneration of 12 important tree species of Silent Valley tropical rain forests showed good natural regeneration of all 12 species. The species studied were Palaquium ellipticum, Cullenia exarillata, Poeciloneuron indicum, Myristica dactyloides, Elaeocarpus glandulosus, Litsea floribunda, Mesua nagassarium, Cinnamomum malabatrum, Agrostistachys meeboldii, Calophyllum polyanthum, Garcinia morella and Actinodaphne campanulata.^[33]

Recent selective felling of three trees per acre, has led to the cutting of 48,000 m³ of timber from about 2000 ha.^[34]

In 1996, Impatiens sivarajanii, a new species of Balsaminaceae was discovered in the park.^[35]

There is a huge hollow Kattualying tree here which can fit 12 people inside.^[36]

[edit] Threats

• Forest fire - Fire is one of the major threats facing the forests of Kerala. People engaged in grazing livestock often burn an area to get fresh grass shoots for their cattle, especially during dry season when fire danger is greatest. Also, illicit activities like ganja cultivation, poaching, tree felling, non timber forest products (NTFP) collection and very often careless tourists and pilgrims are responsible for big forest fires.^[37] Some extent of the Mesua - Calophyllum tree association areas in the higher reaches are degraded due to previous fire and the area is now fast regenerating.^[38]
• Tourism - It will be ensured that development of tourism in Kerala will not be a threat to wildlife sanctuaries and protected forests. Projects that will be a threat to natural attractions like rare flora and fauna will not be taken up for tourism purposes. Entrance to protected wildlife sanctuaries will be regulated by permitting tourists in small groups.
• Ganja cultivation - The ganja mafia has cut hundreds of acres of evergreen tropical forest in the Attappady Hills, including Silent Valley buffer zones, for illegal cultivation of the cash crop. The Forest Department had an ambitious plan to root out ganja cultivation from the Attappady forests by April 2006.^[20]
• Construction - Construction activities in environmental sensitive areas will be regulated according to action plans prepared in advance.^[39]
• Livestock grazing - Grazing and watering of cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats and domestic pigs is prohibited within the confines of the park, however it still occurs in adjacent areas. The announced declaration of a buffer zone around the park in the near future should minimize this threat.
• Feral dogs -

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Silent Valley : Whispers of Reason/edited by T.M. Manoharan, S.D. Biju, T.S. Nayar and P.S. Easa. Peechi, 1999 Whispers of Reason not cited, need copy
• UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (1988) Summary: Silent Valley National Park
• |Birds of India
• Aerial view of the Park
• Aiyappan A. (1988), Tribal Culture and Tribal Welfare By, Uma Charan Mohanty, University of Madras Dept. of Anthropology, pp.195. Original from the University of Michigan Digitized Dec 12, 2006. Tribal Culture

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