SILENT VALLEY
Silent Valley is a tropical rain forest area at the Southern and of the the Western ghats in the Malabar region of Kerala. It is an evergreen forest in the Palakkad district of Kerala. Save Silent Valley was a movement started to save Silent Valley from hydroelectric project. the movement was started in the year 1973. The Silent Valley was declared as Silent Valley National Park in 1984.
HYDROELECTIC PROJECT IN SILENT VALLEY:
Silent Valley is one of the richest biological and genetic heritages in the world. The Government of Kerala proposed a hydroelectric project on Silent Vallley. Malabar is the least developed area in Kerala.. The per capita consumption of electric energy in Malabar is only a quarter of the state wide figure. The project was about to provide immense potential for employment. But the project was a threat of extiction to many biological species. So a Campaign was started to save the species.
CAMPAIGN:
Individuals and several organisations brought the Campaign together. The list of organisation took part in the Campaign are
the Kerala
Sastra Sahitya Parishad
the National Committee on Enivronmental Planning
the Bombay Natural History Society
World Widelife Fund Friends of Trees
the International Union of Conservation of Nature
and
the Press.
The Central Government requested the state of Kerala to abandon the project.BOTANICAL SURVEY:
The study on the areas yielded the information that over 900 species of flowering plants and ferns in the Valley. The Botanical survey said that the species which were extinct in the other parts of the world are found in the Silent Valley. The vegetation in Silent Valley is full of medicinal and aromatic plants. Spice and Pulse yielding plants were found in the Valley. The pulse yielding plants had genetic diversity with disease resistance and protein content.
ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY:
The Zoological Survey of India identified rare and endangered faunal speices. It includes butterflies, birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. Many insects and birds like black orange flycatcher, the white-browed bulbul, the hill myna and the hornbill are endemic in the Silent Valley. Three endangered mammals like the Lion- tailed Macaque, the tiger and the Wilgiri thar are also found.
CONCLUSION:
The Campaigners against the project made the case that the needs of Malabar could be done in many other ways. The Hydroelectric Project was abandoned by the government. Thus the Save Silent Valley movement saved hundreds of species. To conclude with the following words that “Development however desirable, should not be at the cost of environment”