Why in news? A bird survey conducted at the Silent Valley National Park in Kerala marked the 30th anniversary

Highlights

• Park identified 141 species, of which 17 were new.
• First survey was held in the December 1990
• Recent Survey was held in association with the Kerala Natural History Society

About Species

• Brown wood owl, Banded bay cuckoo, Malabar woodshrike, White-throated kingfisher, Indian nightjar, Jungle nightjar, and Large cuckooshrike were among the 17 species newly identified in the Silent Valley.
• Birds such as Crimson-backed sunbird, Yellow-browed bulbul, Black bulbul, Indian white-eye and Indian swiftlet were found in abundance in Valley.

Silent Valley National Park

• Location : Kerala
• Part of rich biodiversity of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve
• Mukurthi National Park of Nilgiris district, are located around Silent Valley National Park.
• River :Bhavani River, a tributary of Kaveri River, Kadalundi River and Kunthipuzha River, a tributary of Bharathappuzha river a originate in the vicinity of Silent Valley
• Vegetation : South Western Ghats mountain rain forests and tropical moist evergreen forest
• Fauna: home to the largest population of lion-tailed macaques
• Indigenous People: Mudugar, Irula and Kurumbar

Environmental Concern :

• Valley became the focus of “Save Silent Valley“, India’s fiercest environmental movement of the decade, when the Kerala State Electricity Board decided to implement the Silent Valley Hydro-Electric Project (SVHEP) centered on a dam across the Kunthipuzha River resulting in cancelling of project
• Home to some of India’s largest illegal plantations of cannabis
• Fire is one of the major threats facing forests in Kerala