Wildlife Trekking Tours

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. Silent Valley National Park, Forest Office Mukkali 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 th

Silent Valley National Park recently launched a monsoon package to Keerippara . A day trekking to Keerippara was available for a long time, in between it was off-limits for sometime due to Maoist trouble.  Earlier i had tried unsuccessfully (twice) to go on the Keerippara trek, but this time successfully booked the new package (we were the fourth to take it since launch).  We started around 3 p.m. from Mukkali. Shibu (a 21 year veteran Watcher) and Sudheesh  our guides for the trek, purchased provisions for our food at a local grocery and we're on our way. The trek route starts on the Mukkali-Anaikatty highway close to the bus stop. It was a kucha road, fully motorable and was easy to climb. The mist had also descended and it was a pleasant start.  Keerippara Trek Route Slowly it started drizzling and later became a bit heavy. We stopped in between to wear rain protection and unwittingly became easy targets for the leeches. Before we realised, they were all over our