Silent Valley National Park

New species found in Silent Valley National Park

#GS-03 Biodiversity

For Prelims

Silent Valley National Park

  • Silent Valley National Park is located in state of Kerala in the Nilgiri hills.
  • Silent Valley National Park is part of the Western Ghats World Heritage Site.
  • It is the last remaining rain forest in state of Kerala.
  • It was declared Reserve Forest in the year 1914 and later in 1984 it was declared as the National Park.
  • Silent Valley region is locally known as Sairandhrivanam, which translates as Sairandhri’s
  • Silent Valley is home to the largest population of Lion tailed macaques which is an endangered primate species.
  • River Kunthi, originating from the Nilgiri hills, traverses the entire length of the valley.
  • The area was named ‘Silent Valley’ by the British due to a perceived absence of noisy Cicadas.
  • The Indian Council of Agricultural Research, ICAR (India) identified Silent Valley as a region with high biodiversity and an important Gene Pool resource for Recombinant DNA

The New species discovered:

  • Brown wood owl, Banded Bay cuckoo, Malabar wood shrike, White-throated kingfisher, Indian nightjar, Jungle nightjar, and Large cuckoo shrike are some of the 17 new species recently identified in the Silent Valley.
  • A survey held in 2006 identified as many as 139 birds including birds such as Crimson-backed sunbird, Yellow-browed bulbul, Black bulbul, Indian white-eye and Indian swiftlet.
  • Several species endemic to high elevation areas were also identified during the survey.
  • These include Nilgiri laughingthrush, Nilgiri flowerpecker, Brown-cheeked fulvetta, Black-and-orange flycatcher, Grey-headed canary-flycatcher, Greenish warbler, Common chiffchaff, Tytler’s leaf warbler, Shaheen falcon, Nilgiri wood pigeon, and Malabar whistling thrush.

Source “Silent Valley bird species’ number goes up to 175