The Silent Valley National Park is located To the South of Ooty in the Nilgiri Hills of Western Ghats, in the Palakkad district of Kerala, South India. The park is one of the last undisturbed tracts of South Western Ghats mountain rain forests and tropical moist evergreen forest in India. The Park is Bounded by the proposed Karimpuzha National Park (225 km²) to the north and The Mukurthi National Park (78.46 km²) to the north-east. There are many Species of Flora and Fauna, which is exclusively found only in Silent Valley
THE SILENT VALLEY NATIONAL PARK
The silent valley national park is an unique container of the natural rain forests with a core area of 89.52 Sq Km and a Buffer zone of 148 Sq Km. The silent valley houses a rich mosaic of a variety of habitats , that supports an amazing variety of life forms, of which many are endemic to the western Ghats. About 75- 80 % of the land is covered with thick woody vegetation and about 20 % is covered by grass lands.
Boundary
The silent valley spans along the Districts of Malapuram and Palakkad of Kerala, between 11.3 N and 11.13 N and 76.24 E and 76.32 E. The elevation Ranges from 900 MAMSL To 2400 MAMSL. The highest peak is Aniguida which has its peak at 2383 MAMSL. (It is said that this is the Second Highest Peak of South India (Along with other contestants Including Chokramudi of Munnar, Amruthamedu At Peermade) After Anamudi. The NASA Workd Winds gives an Altitude 2313 MAMSL Using the Laser Triangulation And Surface Detection Methods By NASA) The Silent valley is Bounded by the Ooty (A famous hill station in Tamilnadu), Manarkad Town Of kerala to the west , Coimbatore To the East and Attapady Hills to the South.
NB: I am Interested in Knowing about the Right Answer for the Highest peak of South India, If anyone is Interested in Working out for the same, Using the GPS System please Contact Me.
HOW TO REACH SILENT VALLEY
Silent valley Is Easily Accessible from the Major Towns of Kerala And Tamilnadu. The office of silent valley is located at a town called Mukkali, a small town with a few shops.
Coimbatore (90 Kms from Mukkali) (There is Airport and Railway Station at Coimbatore): You have to Follow the Anaketty, Goolikadavu Route Along the Thadakam Road (Turn Right along a straight Road after Opanakara Street,near Ukadam Refer map For More Info) To Reach Mukkali, Where the Office of Silent Valley is Located. There is A Petrel Plumb at Goolikadavu (A good Town).
BY BUS :There are Buses (Tamil Nadu Buses are available from the Route Bus stand of Coimbatore at Gandhipuram) very frequently to Anakaetty from Coimbatore and the Bus charge is 21 Rs. From Anaketty there are Buses to Manarkad / Kozhikode or Palakkad (You have the Cross the State Boundary Check Post at Anaketty by walk to get the Bus, Anaketty is the border of Kerala and Tamilnadu). Now from here you will get both KSRTC and Private buses, they will have bus stops at every kilometer and will move very slowly. The bus charge to Mukkali is 35 Rs.
Palakkad (80 Kms) (There is A Railway Station at Palakkad): From Palakkad KSRTC Bus Stand you will get Bus to Kozhikode or Manarkad. The charge to Manrkad is About 20 Rs and it will take almost 1 Hour. Manarkad is a big town and there are lot of shops. From Manarkad Private Bus stand you will get buses to Anaketty, which goes to Mukkali. From Manarkad you can have a good view of the Hills to the east. The road from Manarkad Is a Ghat road along the forest and is very beautiful and it takes around 1 hour to reach Mukkali. Kozhikode (There is Airport and Railway Station). You can take up a Palakkad Bus and reach Mukkali via Manarkad.
THE SILENT VALLEY TRIP FROM MUKKALI:
The entrance to Silent valley Park is 25 Kilometers from Mukkali along a jeep road . You have to get entrance tickets and Guide from the office at Mukkali to enter into the park. You have to submit your contact info and the list of the team at the office. Foreigners must write their passport numbers in the application form.You must reserve your Arrival and only then you are allowed to go in.
The Entrance charges are as Follows. Entrance for A Foreigner : 210 Rs (The foreigner must show and write their passport number in the application form and make a signature in the Log book.) Entrance for Indian : 25 Rs (Don’t have much formalities) Camera : 25 Rs (For the entry of the camera. No one is going to ask for the Camera pass at the Park, but Get is if you are planning to use it.) Entry of Jeep : 50 Rs : (Only jeeps are allowed to move along the 25 Km pacca road to silent valley. You will have to hire a jeep. There is parking space for other vehicles near the office). Charge for Guide :250 Rs :You must get a guide and only with the guide you can go into the silent valley. Normally the guide is not that useful and they will be some jobless locals.
You have to move along the pacca road for 25 Kms to reach the top. The road sides morphs to Green forest from coffee plantations and teak plantations. It takes around 2 hours to reach the top. NB :You can see a lot of Wild animals like Malabar Squirrel and black monkeys. You can tell the guide to have a look outside to find it while the vehicle moves.
Interactive Zoomable Google Map ofMukkali where the entrance and office is silent valley is located]
Interactive Map : (c) 2005 Google Inc.
SIGHTS AND SOUND AT SILENT VALLEY
I was so amazed by the views on both sides of the road while moving from Mukkali to the park. There was a big gate and a check post welcoming us to forest. The jeep was moving slowly along the road laid with stones. I could hear the sound of many birds and hopefully watch a few of them sitting in the road and flying around the tree branches. It took almost 2 hours to cover the 25 km long road to reach the top. There were a few Tribal settlements on the way. The tribes- the real protectors of the wild , were forced to live outside the forest and work on government land near the forest, a very pathetic condition.
ON THE WAY
In an hour we crossed the final tribal settlement and were moving along deep forest. There were sights of many wild animals, including Black monkey, and giant Malabar squirrel. There were many others but I was not able to capture it into my camera. We stopped at several places on the way to get a good glance of the forest. After 20 Kms we saw a board and a gate welcoming us to the silent valley National park and soon we were at a place called Sairandhri, where there was a 150 meter high watch tower.
THE WATCH TOWER
It was a bit hard to climb up the watch tower which had a fleet of 300 vertical steps. From the top of the tower, we had a bird’s eye view of the hills around the silent valley including Poochipara (Shown in the Photo) and Anginda Peak. We tried to spot out elephants in the hills but we were not able to. The view of the Kunthi river and the hanging bridge was very beautiful. We could see many high peaks on all sides. It was awesome. We were not allowed to be on top of the tower for a very long time, as the next group was waiting for their entrance. At a time only 15 are allowed to be on the tower.
THE MUSEUM The museum near the watchtower was very interesting. There were photos of the rare flora and fauna in the silent valley. The thing I liked was a computer with pre-recorded sound of the birds of silent valley. There were a few games and wildlife quiz.
KUNTHI RIVER
The Kunthi river is one of the fresh water rivers in Kerala. It start form the Nilgiri biosphere and flows through the silent valley. The river is visible from the watch tower. A fine blend of nature and man was a hanging bridge made over the river. This the last point of the Silent valley trek.
From the hanging bridge built across the Kunthi river, you can have a beautiful view of the river. The location is 2 kilometer far form the Watch tower and this route is the trek route of the Silent valley. But i dont think this is a good trek for a good trekker (The trek is like Parcletides tiger hunt). The route is a 6 meter wide road, eventhought thre are trekkabke cross roads. Human entry is not permitted beyond this point, but you can steal the eyes of the guide and move along the rest of the path for some time, which gives you splendid view of the forest.
The most amazing view at silent valley is the view of the old and big trees. There are trees which have a circumference of 10 meters, and trees with big holes inside through which you can see the sky. The team mates were busy taking their portraits standing inside the tree trunk. There were sights of orchids on top of big trees, and messy wired climbers, banyan trees and stranglers. The sunlight was trying very hard to reach the ground, but were cut by the huge canopy of the huge trees, and the ground was covered by a thick cussion of fallen leaves and grass.
WHERE TO STAY
There is Wildlife wardens Office at Manarkad, but staying here will not allow you to enjoy the beauty of Attapady.
A Good Jungle lodge i have found is near Petttickal, Called Malleeshwaram Jungle Lodge. They does Trekking trips al around Attapady. They do trips to Silent Valley. Mr Domnic who runs the Lodge is a very deticated traveller. You can visit http://www.malleeshwaram.com/ for more info.
The Malleeshwaram jungle Lodge has a few Independent Natural rooms, In the midst of a 100 acre plantation. The lodge s located at a place called Pettickal, near Goolikadavu. The lodge is completely eco friendly and is a very good place to stay.
The lodge is a very special place for bird watching, nature walk, tribal visits etc.
The river Kunthi descends from the Nilgiri hills, at an altitude of 2000 MAMSL and traverses the entire length of the silent valley and rushes down to the plains through the deep forest. This river never turns brown and is always crystal clear, perennial and wild and is said to give the best fresh water in kerala. Kunthi (named after the matriarch of the Indian epic, Mahabharata) is a drinking water source for downstream villages and tribal hamlets and a key tributary of Bharathapuzha (Nila), Kerala's second-longest river.
You can have a birds eye view of the river from the watch tower.
