Planning the Sairandhri trip
Checked 27 October 2026. The story below is from my 2017 visit.
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Very well described.
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