|
How to Reach Silent Valley national Park
By Air
The Nearest airport is at Coimbatore, 55 kms.
By Rail
The nearest railway station is Palakkad, 75 kms.
Latitude - 11°00' - 11°13' N
Longitude - 76.20° - 76.35° E
Altitute : 658-2383 meters above the sea-level
Minimum Temperature : 20.4°C
Maximum Temperature : 39.0°C
Rainful : 1,624.3 mm
Best time to visit: September to March
Silent Valley National Park is situated in the Palakkad district of Kerala. Silent Valley in Kerala is considered India's last area of tropical evergreen rain forest and is a precious biodiversity resource, which you can visit. Threatened by the construction of a dam across the Kunti River, which flows out of Silent Valley National Park, during the 1970's, Silent Valley was rescued as a result of an agitation by environmentalists and conservationists in Kerala.
 |
|
Situated in the Kundali Hills, 40 Km from Mannarkkad, in the Western Ghats in Kerala, Silent Valley National Park is one of the few remaining pristine forest areas in the Western Ghats. It was declared a National Park in 1980 and is the core area of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Called Silent Valley because the loud calls of Cicadas heard elsewhere in this region are not heard here, Silent Valley has an amazing range of wildlife. Tigers, deer, and mammals native to the South Indian Peninsula, such as the Nilgiri Langur, Malabar Giant Squirrel, Lion-Tailed Macaque, Flying squirrel and Civet Cat are found in Silent Valley National Park. You can enjoy observing these rare animals and many more in Silent Valley National Park on yor tour.
More than 110 butterflies species and 400 moth species have also been observed in Silent Valley National Park. Birds such as the Malabar Hornbill, Great Indian Hornbill, hoopoes, tree pie, barbets, crow pheasant, woodpeckers, rollers, drongoes, kingfishers and parakeets can be seen in abundance in Silent Valley National park. Many varieties of snakes, amphibians and lizards can also be seen in Silent Valley.
Flora
The vegetation of Silent Valley Wildlife Sanctuary is tropical moist evergreen forest with the special status of Rain Forests. The main plants are teak, semal, amla, rosewood, and bamboo.
Fauna
The valley has a fair representation of all peninsular mammals. They are lion - tailed macaque, Nilgiri langur, bonnet macaque, tiger, leopard (Panther), leopard cat, fishing act, common palm civet,small Indian civer, brown plam civet, ruddy mongoose, stripenencked mongoose, wild dog, sloth bear, otter, flying squirrel, Malabar gaint squirrel, Indian pangolin (scaly anteater), Porcupine, wild boar, sambar, spotted deer, barking deer, mouse deer, gaur and elephant.
Birds include rare such as Indian black-crested baza, bonellis' hawk eagle, rufous bellied hawk eagle, shaheen falcon, short-eared owl, penisular scops owl, Ceylon frog mouth, great Indian hornbill, Niligiri laughing thrush, house martin, rufous bellied shortwing, Malay bittern etc. About 170 species have been recorded of which 31 are migrants.The fauna include a number of possible new species, a few very primitive animal groups, notably Ceacilians (limbless amphibians) and some rare small mammals such as the Peshwa's bat and heary-winged bat.Butterflis and moths are varied and plenty. There are more than 100 species of butterflies and 400 species of moths. Quite a few of them are extremely rare and endemic.
The Silent Valley is a veritable treasure house-a gene pool of tropical flora and fauna. This has to be protected from human depredation and cherished for all times to come.
|
