Silent valley is treasure trove of flora and fauna. There will not hear the song of the cicadus in this vally- all around is quiet. It is home to the largest population of lion-tailed macaque, an endangered species of primate. It is one of the last un disturbed tracts of the south western ghats montane rain forests and trropical moist evergreen forests in India.
Palakkad is known as the gate way of kerala because it opens kerala to the rest of the countes through a 25 mile inside gap in the western ghats known is the palakkad gap. Incidentally the latter happens to be the laargest mountain pass in the world.
In the north-eastern corner of palakkad lies the famed silent valley. The silent valley is spread over 237 square kilometres and happens to be among the oldest stretches of rainforests in world. It is possibly the only region in the country with a relatively un disturbed evolution history of at least 50 million years.
The Mahabharata tells the story of pandaas losing the game of dice, and sent in to exile for 13 years. Legend has it that the pandavas had it that the pandavas had spent the better part of these years in the silent valley.
The clamour of the cicadus is conspicuously absent there. It is this silence that made in British name’ Silent vally’ in1847.
A power project that was coming up on the Kuntipuzha river in the 1970’s had triggered off one of the fiercest environmental campaigns the country has ever known. The then prime minister IndiraGandhi stepped in and stopped the project from coming up.
In 1984, the Silennt vally was declared National Park. Mannarkkad is the nearest town from the silent vally. About 22 kilometres from mannarkkad is Mukkali- the starting point for a trip to silent vally. The Silent vally is divided in to four parts of which only Sairandri is open to visitors. Journey from Mukkali to Sairandhri takes an hour. In 1847, Robert Wright made the first investigations in the silent vally area.
Website: www.silentvalley.gov.in
Prof. John Kurakar
johnkurakar@yahoo.com
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