Sairandhri(Named after Draupathi) is a place inside the Core Zone of Silent Valley National Park and the jeep or Bus trekking to sairandhri is the most popular activity in silent valley national park. We reached there on Friday morning(23rd June,17) around 8.30 a.m. We found the place buzzing with activity , almost the whole forest department of Silent Valley had descended there and they out numbered the tourists by 3:1. The new conservator of Silent Valley was coming to stay and every one in the department was present and in their best attire. To the departments credit none of this affected the tourists in anyway.
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| Silent Valley National Park, Forest Office Mukkali |
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| Silent Valley National Park, Ecotourism Reception |
Being a weekday there were not many tourists and we were informed that the bus will not ply that day for the same reason. So we settled for a Jeep ride (2000 Rs including the Guide charges) and started around 9 a.m. The first pit stop is at the check post. From the register we came to know that only 2 groups had gone earlier.
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| Silent Valley National Park, Entry Check Post |
Sairandhri is around 22 kms from Mukkali and the ride takes close to an hour and half. The roads were layed for the dam construction and not tarred after the project was abandoned. The initial 8 kms runs through coffee and Cardamom plantations, which support a wide variety of birds. We were lucky to spot a serpent eagle.
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| Serpent Eagle |
We also saw a couple of tribal settlements on the way. The tribals mainly work in the plantations and of them are watchers in the forest department as well.
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| Tribal Settlement |
After the coffee and cardamom starts the teak and some eucalyptus, yes you heard it right. Eucalyptus in a rain forest, unfortunate but true :( . There are some standard stop points where the guide shows you tiger claw marks and lion tailed macaque habitat and some tree species that he knows. The vegetation gets better and better as we move up the path.
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| Plantations amid endemic trees |
The stream below is the standard halting point for a break. In all my previous trips to Sairandhri there have always been decent flow and it was unfortunate to see it reduced to a trickle, that too 3 weeks into the monsoon. The water was as pure and refreshing as always. One mistake we did was to tell the guide that we had to be back by 3 as we had to go to keerippara in the evening. He used it as an alibi to just rush us through the entire trip. He was from mannarkkad and really not a man of the forest. Though trained to be a guide he was bad and the fact that he was not letting us relax was a major irritant.
The core zone of Silent Valley national park starts 1 km before the peak . from there the vegetation is ever green. Silent Valley is said to have got its name, because there were no cicada's. Unfortunately the cicada noise now is almost deafening. Cicada's apparently don't thrive in very wet climes and Silent Valley used to receiving rain 9 months an year. Now with rain diminishing significantly looks like the cicada's are out to avenge. Silently Valley is famous for its butterflies and moths. We were delighted to see so many species of colorful butterflies.
There are two major attractions at the top. One is a 100 feet watch tower the other is a 1.5 km trek to the rope bridge on river kunthi. The proposed place for a dam site. The clock tower offers amazing views of the valley and is really breathtaking.
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| Watch Tower |
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| View From Watch Tower |
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| View From Watch tower |
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| View From Watch Tower |
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| View from an earlier trip on a rainy day |
There is decent infrastructure available here. Apart from a inspection bungalow, there is a quarters for the staff and a tea shop and a dining area. In the last four years that i have seen this place , there is lot of improvement on the facilities
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| Tea Shop, Dining Area, Restrooms |
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| A decent Parking lot too |
After seeing the tower we started on the trail down to river kunthi. Its an easy trek and takes about 20 mins to reach the river. More than the beauty its the significance of the place and it's history that's great about it. A popular people's movement to save the valley in the 1970's against the state that was keen on developing a dam. Finally thanks to Indira gandhi's intervention the valley is still intact. To put it melodramatically, that 1.5 kms is more like a pilgrimage for a few.
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| Kunthi River |
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| Bridge |
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| Proposed Location of the Dam |
According to local folklore pandavas were living in this place during their vanvas, hence the name Kunthi and Sairandhri(Draupadi). We started on our way back and made it back to the jeep in 30 mins. We rested for a few minutes, had some delicious guavas from a nearby tree and started back to mukkali. Despite this being my fourth trip(or pilgrimage) i was as excited as i was the first time. I'm sure i'll go back many more times too.
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