Silent Valley: Whispers of Reason

Silent Valley, situated in Palakkad district of Kerala in the southern Western Ghats, is one of the richest, most threatened and least studied forest tracts in India. Silent Valley caught international attention a decade ago when the people, with the moral support of conservationists in India and abroad including international bodies like the IUCN, WWF etc. campaigned to save Silent Valley from being submerged in the reservoir of a hydroelectric project. This unprecedented movement heralded a new epoch of environmental awareness and ecological ethics. Silent Valley was subsequently declared a National Park in 1984 as a precious gift to the posterity and it became a symbol of nature conservation in the country. / This anthology brought out by the Kerala Forest Department contains 38 articles in four parts. The first part narrates the historical evolution and the second delineates the managerial evolution of the Silent Valley National Park. The third and fourth parts deal with the flora and fauna and their conservation strategies. Spectacular photographs by eminent nature photographers adorn the pages, offering but a glimpse of the treasures of Silent Valley. Unique in contents and treatment, this volume, like the success story of the Silent Valley Movement, is a tribute to Nature and vouches for what can be achieved when naturalists, forestry experts and scientists join hands for the cause of conservation.