Significance of Silent Valley National Park

Significance of Silent Valley National Park Exceptional Ecosystem diversity from moist deciduous, semi evergreen, evergreen and shola forests to montane grasslands. Effectively protected, representative example of evergreen forests in India. Exceptional species diversity and endemic value of evergreen and semi evergreen communities. Significant population of Lion Tailed Macaque and Nilgiri Langur Important watershed of Bharathapuzha Potential for wildlife research and education. Contiguous to Mukkurthi Tahr National Park, Reserve forests of Attappady and new Amarambalam area, a key component of a major conservation complex in the Western Ghats and Nilgiri Biosphere reserve. It comes under Project Elephant area Embodiment of nature conservation spirit in the country

Bio geographically, Silent Valley and the adjacent forests of the Western Ghats represent “ecological islands” in which it is possible to observe the conditions that prevailed before modifications set in, in the humid tropical forests of peninsular India. Though the stability of these ecological islands is fast dwindling, these ecological products introduce an important factor in the bio geographical evolution, viz. isolation mostly due to physical barriers as a result of the Palakkad gap. Isolation, therefore, has had the effect of preserving the relict characters of the flora and fauna of Silent Valley and adjacent areas, as indicated by the presence of primitive groups of flora and fauna. The distribution range of these relict species had been considerably restricted, presenting an apparent picture of endemism. The intermingling of Indo-Malayan elements in the flora and fauna of the area is due to preservation of the once extensive tropical forests, which extended over the whole of the Peninsula. The concentration and isolation of these elements only in some areas of the Ghats, present precarious picture of survival of relicts of an otherwise impoverished flora and fauna.