Silent Valley: Whispers of Reason

by T.M. Manoharan (ed.)

This anthology of 38 articles on various aspects of Silent Valley is the culmination of the selfless endeavour of many persons who love Silent Valley and cherish the memory of the popular campaign for its conservation. It contains papers on the historical and managerial evolution of Silent Valley National Park as well as on its biodiversity. The decision to bring out such a comprehensive volume on Silent Valley was taken in a jubilant meeting on 25th November 1995, convened to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the declaration of Silent Valley as a National Park. Accordingly, articles were invited from those who worked in Silent Valley and those who had associated with the campaign. The response was overwhelming and articles poured in from scientists, naturalists and forestry experts of the forest department. And this volume is the outcome.

The articles in this volume have been presented in four parts:

• The first part narrates the historical evolution of Silent Valley National Park
• The second part gives glimpses of the evolution of its management strategies
• The third and fourth parts deal the flora and fauna and their endemicity, rarity and diversity.

Contents:

• Foreword
• Preface
• Gathered Gaiety of a decade : a report on the tenth anniversary celebration of the declaration of Silent Valley a National Park.

• I. Milestones of destiny:

1. Silent Valley National Park-a biological paradise/M.S. Swaminathan
2. Silent Valley-a case study/Sugatha Kumari
3. Silent Valley-a poem on the earth/Justice K. Sukumaran
4. The Saga of Silent Valley--where was the cutting edge of success?/T.M. Manoharan, G. Harikumar and K. Geetha
5. The media's role in forest conservation: a case study of the campaign to save the Silent Valley/Anand Parthasarathy and S. Rangamony
6. The Silent Valley crusade/M.K. Prasad
7. A photonaturalist in Silent Valley/K. Jayaram
8. Give the young ones a better world/Mrinalini Sarabhai
9. Silent Valley-reflections after two decades/S. Sathis Chandran Nair
10. A treasure saved and sustained/M.A. Partha Sarathy

• II. Handling the heritage:

1. Silent Valley National Park-a historical perspective/K. Sasidharan Nair, K. Balachandran Thampi and N.V. Trivedi Babu
2. Status paper on Silent Valley National Park-the management perspective/V.K. Sinha, V.K. Uniyal and G. Rennenson
3. Silent Valley-a candidate for world natural heritage site/P.K. Surendranathan Asari
4. Problems and prospects in protecting Silent Valley National Park/P.N. Unnikrishnan

• III. Its denizens-plants:

1. Forest types of Silent Valley/S. Chand Basha
2. Biodiversity and ecological status of Silent Valley as revealed by its angiosperm flora/K.S. Manilal
3. Remote sensing in biodiversity conservation with special reference to Silent Valley and its environs/B.K. Ranganath, S. Adiga, K. Radhakrishnan and T.M. Manoharan
4. Plant wealth of Silent Valley/P. Pushpangadan and C. Sathish Kumar5. Additions to the flora of Silent Valley/N. Sasidharan and P.V. Anto
5. Chronicle of discoveries--the pursuit of plants/S.D. Biju
6. Occurrence of Sri Lankan endemic plants in Silent Valley/C.R. Suresh
7. Rare and threatened plants of Silent Valley/N. Venkatasubramanian, K.R. Sasidharan, B. Gurudev Singh and N.P. Mahadevan
8. Orchids of Silent Valley/C. Sathish Kumar
9. Wild crop genetic resources of Silent Valley with special reference to in situ conservation of Piper species/K.C. Velayudhan, V.A. Amalraj, Z. Abraham, K. Joseph John, M. Abdul Nizar and K.I. Asha
10. Araceae of Silent Valley and neighbourhood/M. Sivadasan
11. Observations on the epiphytic flora of Silent Valley/Muktesh Kumar & Stephen Sequiera
12. Species preferences of two endangered primates in the tropical rain forests of Silent Valley/T.S. Nayar, M.P. Nayar and M. Balakrishnan.

• IV. Its denizens - animals:

1. Some generalizations based on faunistic studies in Silent Valley/K.S.S. Nair
2. Mammals of Silent Valley/M. Balakrishnan
3. Butterflies and moths of Silent Valley National Park/George Mathew
4. Song of rain/P.K. Uthaman
5. Faunistic novelties of Silent Valley/C. Radhakrishnan, K.C. Gopi and P.S. Easa
6. Lion tailed macaque in Silent Valley National Park/K.K. Ramachandran and Gigi K. Joseph
7. Bird community structure in the three different vegetation types of Silent Valley and adjacent forest area/P. Pramod
8. Snakes of Silent Valley/Romulus Whitaker and Gerard Martin
9. The lower vertebrates of Silent Valley/P.S. Easa and C.P. Shaji
10. An introduction to the avifauna of Silent Valley/R. Sugathan
11. The less known lesser carnivores/T.R.K. Yaganand and Ajith Kumar.

References

Index.