Silent Valley- Palakkad

Silent Valley National Park is a beautiful representation of the last remaining rain forest of Kerala. The eerie silence, emphasized by the missing Cicadas that gave Silent Valley its name, may make you feel and hear things you could never have imagined. A few centuries ago, before humans reached the Silent Valley, this reserve of tropical rainforests stood undisturbed and tranquil like a perfectly hidden diamond. Historically it’s a paradigm of people’s movement to protect the forest.

Located in the Northeast corner of Palakkad district, Silent Valley was named a National Park only in 1984 and christened a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2012. Located in Nilgiris hills of the landscape of Palakkad is the beautiful Silent Valley National Park which is commonly called as Syrandhri Forest. As per the geologist, this beautiful place existed during the Indo Australian plate.

I planned to go to this place for a 2 day trip . We went just after the monsoon and the place was green and very beautiful with little puddles, waterfalls and amazing weather. The current to the place we were staying was generated from water and everything that I saw and experienced was just mind blowing.

BEST TIME TO VISIT

From December to April as it’s the winter season there. It rains very heavily from June till September and continues through October and November.

MODE OF TRANSPORT

Flight: The Coimbatore International Airport located 91 km away is the nearest airport to Silent Valley Park.

Train:- The nearest railway station to Silent Valley is the Palakkad Junction Railway Station, situated 45 km from the park.

Bus:- Bangalore to Coimbatore, Change bus from Coimbatore to Anaikatti, Change the bus again from Anaikatti to Mukkali (silent Valley).

We reached Mukkali SVNP information centre at around 8.30 am which was our meeting point where other trekkers also joined us.

We had our breakfast and headed towards the base camp of the silent valley. They dropped us to our camp site (Pantham thodu camp shed) which was inside the forest where we stayed for 2 whole days with no network, electricity generated from Hydropower plants and with cold water.

Camp site

This campsite offers rooms like dormitories where around 20 people can fit in, and has separate rooms for males and females with 3 times of delicious food. This trip was entirely a trekking one and after we got settled in we headed towards our first destination.

Before I write about the places we visited, let me speak about my experience of the journey to silent valley.

We reached Coimbatore at around 6.30 am and took a Public transport to go to Anaikatti. This short journey of about 1 hour was my favorite with beautiful mountain views. We got down at the Anakkatty Bridge (Kerala- Tamil Nadu Border) and caught a bus to Mukkali and got down at Silent Valley base camp bus stop.

Coimbatore to Anaikatti route

DAY 1

FIRST POINT:- Sairandhri Watch Tower

Sairandhri is said to be the gateway of Silent Valley. The spectacular view of Nilgiris from the watch tower and the ancient untouched waters of Kunthi River is a sight to behold from. We can go till the top of the tower to see the view and take unlimited pictures.

SECOND POINT:- Kunthi River

Also called as Kunthipuzha River, It flows through the Silent Valley National Park, and is a tributary of the river Thuthapuzha, which is in turn one of the main tributaries of the Bharathapuzha River, the second-longest river in Kerala. This river is mainly used by the people of Mannarkkad taluka of Palakkad district. This river is known for the story of bathing of Kunthi devi, the mother of pandavas and so it is named as Kunthippuzha.

To reach this location we have to go through a small trek of about 45 mins and the view is worth walking all these miles.

We headed back to our camp site by around 5.30 because its advised not to stay inside the forest for too long. On the way back we found some small waterfalls where we all played and also got to see few Lion-Tailed Macaques.

That was the end of Day 1

DAY 2

We woke up early in the morning to go for a stroll around the camp site and listen to the chirping of the birds. It was amazing to see age old trees and many kinds of animal species.

We had 1 full day of trekking to Kunthipuzha and visit Sirandhri for which we started a bit early at around 8.30 am. This trek of nearly 6 hours was through the dense forest with trees, crossing ponds, rivers and a lot of leach therapies on the way to reach this place called . we reached back to our base camp at around 4.30 pm. One has to be careful with the leaches since one would find thousands of them while doing trekking.