A Kerala Story of the Triumph of Reason Over Greed : Silent Valley National Park

A Kerala Story of the Triumph of Reason Over Greed : Silent Valley National Park

SANJEEV KUMAR NATH

In one of our three nights in Aranya Nivas, a premium property of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation Limited inside the Periyar National Park at Thekkady, I happened to look into the small library in the premises.

Most of the books seemed to be in Malayalam with just a few in English. Then, as I looked around, I caught sight of the remarkable book Silent Valley: Whispers of Reason edited by T M Manoharan, S D Biju, T S Nayar and P S Easa published by the Kerala Forest Department (in association with Kerala Forest Research Institute) in 1999.

It is a wonderful volume containing 38 articles. The articles are arranged in four divisions.

The first two : 1) “Milestones of Destiny” and 2) “Handling the Heritage” deal mainly with various sociological, ecological, economic and cultural aspects concerning the conservation movement that resulted in the creation and preservation of Silent Valley National Park, while the other two: 3) “Its Denizens—Plants” and 4) “Its Denizens—Animals” contain a wealth of information about the flora and fauna of Silent Valley National Park.

Published as a souvenir on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the declaration of Silent Valley as a National Park, the book is a 423-page volume containing insightful articles about the triumph of a concerted environmental movement and lots of information about the biodiversity of the region. Stunning photographs from a number of eminent photographers provide a glimpse into the beauty of Silent Valley, and thus make the volume all the more valuable.

Since we were more interested in exploring Periyar National Park as much as possible I didn’t read the book through, but quickly ran through some of the articles and came to know how the Silent Valley National Park was a symbol of the victory of reason over folly, of ecological wisdom over commercial greed, of the united voice of the people over political and economic might.

The history of the people’s struggle against the government’s attempts to install a hydroelectric project in the Silent Valley area is full on many twists and turns—as the following description will show—but it also demonstrates how concerted action by the people can yield positive results. In 1970, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) proposed to construct a hydroelectric project over the river Kunthipuzha which runs through the Silent Valley forest.

Although the hydroelectric project dam would have submerged and completely destroyed 8.3 square kilometres of pristine evergreen rain forest, the government argued that the project would help in generating much-needed electricity for Kerala, provide irrigation for 100 square kilometres of agricultural land in Mallapuram and Palghat districts as also employment for thousands of people during the construction of the dam.

The first people who spoke about the possible ecological disasters that the dam would cause were Steven Green from the New York Zoological Society and American-born Indian herpetologist Rom Whitaker.

Green, who was researching on primates in the area, said that the hydroelectric project could further endanger the rare lion-tailed macaque. Whitaker, who was studying the reptiles of the region, wrote to the Natural History Society, emphasizing the need to protect the flora and fauna of the valley.

Gradually more and more people were worried about the ecological cost of the project, and discussions and dissent grew even as the Planning Commission approved the project at a cost of Rs 25 crore in 1973. Due to the mounting protests against the project, the National Committee on Environment Planning and Coordination (NCEPC) set up a task force, led by naturalist and conservationist Zafar Futehally to study the possible ecological impact of the project.

Work on the project was suspended, awaiting the report of the task force, and finally the task force said that the project should be scrapped. However, the report also said that if scrapping the project was not possible, then a series of safeguards must to be taken. The Government of Kerala tried to make full use of this loophole in the report, attempting to go on with the work on the dam, with a promise to implement the safe guards.

However, protests and dissents continued and many NGOs and conservationists argued that the dam would submerge the lower valley completely and would wipe out the rich bio-diversity of Silent Valley. Besides, the workers who would be brought into the forest to complete the project would cause devastation for a very long time.

Then a group of concerned citizens from different walks of life—Dr Sathish Chanra Nair, V S Vijayan, S Prabhakaran Nair, Prof Johncy Jacob, Prof M K Prasad, Dr A Achuthan, Prabhakaran Nair, Sugathakumari and others relentlessly held meetings, seminars, talked to people, trained up young children and created massive awareness about the environmental implications of the project.

Because of their efforts, nature clubs were formed in different parts of Kerala, and people living far away from Silent Valley voiced their support for the movement to save the pristine beauty, rich bio-diversity and delicate ecology of the valley. The Silent Valley movement thus gained national and even international momentum.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) urged the government to protect the Silent Valley, while many eminent Indians including Salim Ali, M S Swaminathan, Madhav Gandgil, C V Radhakrishnan, Sitaram Kesari, Subramaniam Swamy, Piloo Modi and Krishna Kant wrote to the Central Government to scrap the hydroelectric project and save the rich biodiversity of the valley. Bombay National History Society, Geological Survey of India and other organizations requested the Government to declare Silent Valley as a natural bioreserve.

Despite such mounting opposition to the project, Prime Minister Morarji Desai gave the green signal for the project and in June 1979 the Government of Kerala began the work on the project again. However, two months after that (i.e., in August, 1979) the Kerala High Court passed a stay order in response to a petition filed by Prakriti Samrakshana Samiti and a number of individuals.

Besides, the Prakriti Samrakshana Samiti and the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad held protest rallies and debates throughout Kerala, making the Silent Valley Movement a mass movement. Many creative writers joined the struggle by writing poems, stories and plays, making the message of ecological conservation accessible to the people in various ways.

After Morarji Desai was replaced by Charan Singh as the Prime Minister, the new Prime Minister formed a central committee headed by M S Swaminathan to re-examine the issue and submit a report. Meanwhile, the Kerala Government also formed its own committee, allegedly with members who would give a report to the liking of the government.

In June 1980 the Kerala High Court rejected the writ petition filed by Prakriti Samrakshana Samiti and others, and work on the project began again. However, a group of eminent people opposing the project met the Governor of Kerala Jothi Venkatachalam, and requested her to pass a stay order so that the work is not continued until the committee set up by the Central Government submits its report. The governor passed the stay order, and the work on the project stopped again.

For quite some time, most Malayalam newspapers reported these events in such a manner that the protests seemed unnecessary and the government’s stand on “development” and “progress” looked correct. However, gradually, the press began to realise its folly and started publishing reports with the right perspective. National newspapers like the Indian Express and the Hindu carried many news items and features emphasizing the validity and importance of the Silent Valley Movement.

After Charan Singh’s brief tenure as Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India and in 1981 she declared that Silent Valley would be protected. However, when the written document expressing this declaration showed that the cite of the hydroelectric project itself did not fall within the “protected” area, protests mounted again.

Hundreds of telegrams were sent to the Central Government by NGOs and individuals, clamouring for the protection of the entire Silent Valley and the scrapping of the hydroelectric project. The result was that in June 1983, the Centre re-examined the issue with the help of a commissioned chaired by Prof M G K Menon, and in November 1983 the Silent Valley Hydroelectric Project was scrapped.

Considered only as a Reserved Forest since 1914, Silent Valley was declared as a National Park on 15 November, 1984, and was formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on 7 September, 1985. The core area of the National Park is of 89.52 square kilometres, but in 2007 a buffer zone of 148 square kilometres was added to it, raising the total area of the park to 237.52 square kilometres.

The landscape of the park is undulating with elevation of 900 metres to over 2300 metres. Heavy rainfall caused by the south-west and north-east monsoons occurs in Silent Valley during two periods of the year, while June to August is the wettest time of the year.

The hottest months are April and May, when the mean temperature is 23ºC and the coolest months are January and February when the mean temperature is 18ºC. December to April is the period generally considered best for tourists and nature-enthusiasts to visit the park. Coimbatore International Airport is the nearest airport at a distance of 100 kilometres and the nearest railway station is at Palakkad at a distance of 58 kilometres.

Called Sairandhrivanam by the local people, Silent Valley is the home to some 34 species of mammals, 22 species of amphibians, 31 species of reptiles, 292 species of birds, 13 species of fish and 500 species of butterflies and moths. The species which is considered to be the glory of Silent Valley is the lion-tailed macaque, an endangered primate whose largest population lives in the park.

These beautiful macaques are omnivores, but they seem to thrive on the fruits of the Cullenia exarillata, an evergreen tree endemic to the Western Ghats. A variety of other beautiful animals like elephants, tigers, leopards, leopard cats, jungle cats, civets, fishing cats, pangolins, great Malabar squirrels, flying squirrels, wild dogs, gaurs, sambars, spotted deer, mouse deer, barking deer, boars, porcupines, otters Nilgiri langurs, bonnet macaques, etc., and birds like hornbills, Nilgiri wood pigeons, Nilgiri flycatchers, blue winger parakeets, Nilgiri pipits, Nilgiri laughing thrushes, Wayanad laughing thrushes, broad tailed grass warblers, etc., call Silent Valley their home.

Some 14 of the bird varieties are endemic to the western ghats. For botanists, Silent Valley is a paradise with some 1000 species of flowering plants, 200 species of algae and 200 species of liverworts, 107 species of orchids, 100 species of ferns and fern allies, and 75 species of algae identified so far. Many of these plants are endemic to the Western Ghats. Ipsea malabarica, a ground orchid species was rediscovered in Silent Valley after more than a century of its “disappearance” form the earth. Incidentally, Silent Valley is one of the most researched bioreserves in India.

Kurumba, Muduga, Irula and Kattu Naiken tribes live in areas around the Silent Valley National Park. These tribes depend mainly on agriculture and follow the traditional shifting cultivation method. They also collect non-timber forest produce (NTFP) like honey, certain edible tubers, black dammar and gooseberry from the forest, but not from the core area.

Welfare activities and outreach programmes organized by the authorities of the Silent Valley National Park have been able to win the goodwill of these tribes, and they now look on the National Park as a valuable heritage to be preserved.

Today, Silent Valley National Park remains the vibrant evergreen forest it always was, and there are nature camps and ecotourism activities organized to keep the love of nature alive in people’s hearts. The story of the Silent Valley Movement, with its many twists and turns, show how difficult it is to defeat the might of political power and greed but also how the tenacity of intellectuals and the general people fighting for the environment ultimately wins.

How different this story is from the story of agitations and movements and struggles in our dear Assam! The Silent Valley Movement saw leaders and the general populace stick together and fight on and on until the goal was reached.

Hats off to these bravehearts!

(Sanjeev Kumar Nath, sanjeevnath21@gmail.com)

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