silent

to hear one must be silent

The first Western investigation of the watersheds of the Silent Valley area was in 1857 by the botanist Robert Wight.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.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.

Silent Valley is rectangular, twelve kilometres from north to south and seven from east to west.Located between 11°03' to 11°13' N (latitude) and 76°21' to 76°35' E (longitude) it is separated from the eastern and northern high altitude plateaus of the(Nilgiris Mountains)by high continuous ridges including Sispara Peak(2,206 m) at the north end of the park.The park gradually slopes southward down to the Palakkad plains and to the west it is bounded by irregular ridges.The altitude varies 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.

Rivers

The Kuntipuzha River drains the entire 15 km length of the park from north to south into the Bharathapuzha River.Kuntipuzha River divides the park into a narrow eastern sector of width 2kilometers and a wide western sector of 5kilometers. The river is characterized by its crystal clear water and perennial nature.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 1,861 m to 900 m over a distance of 12 km, the last 8 km being particularly level with a fall of only 60 m. Kuntipuzha is one of the less torrential rivers of the Western Ghats, with a pesticide-free catchment area.

New blooms at Silent Valley

flower

New species of balsams or ‘jewel weeds’ have been found at the Silent Valley National Park. V.B.Sreekumar, Sujanapal, and Dandus researchers of the Kerala Forest Research Institute(KFRI) discovered a new species named Impatiens sahyadrica at the Silent Valley.Balsams or ‘jewel weeds’ (impatiens) belong to the family Balsaminaceae. The plants are mainly distributed in tropical and subtropical regions and in the northern temperate regions. The colour of the flowers ranges from cool white to lavender rose, brilliant pinks and many luminescent colours. Some even have two colours. The name ‘impatien’ refers to the readiness with which the plants’ seeds are dispersed. The ripe seedpod bursts upon the slightest pressure, thus scattering the seeds. The Silent Valley National Park has several rare and endemic impatiens, the researchers said. “During our survey, we could observe 19 different species of impatiens,” Dr. Sreekumar said. The findings have been published in Phytotaxa , an international journal published from New Zealand. In India, the genus is represented by more than 210 species, the researchers say. The Nilgiri phytogeographical region has the second highest concentration of impatiens on the Western Ghats with 30 species, 21 of which are endemics.

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