Silent Valley National Park
| Silent Valley National Park സൈലന്റ് വാലീ ദേശിയ ഉദ്യാനം |
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IUCN category II (national park)
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| Location | Mannarkkad, Palakkad District, Kerala |
| Nearest city | Mannarkkad |
| Coordinates | 11°08′N 76°28′E / 11.133°N 76.467°ECoordinates: 11°08′N 76°28′E / 11.133°N 76.467°E |
| Area | 236.74 acres (95.81 ha) |
| Established | 26 December 1980 |
| Governing body | Kerala Forest Department |
Silent Valley National Park (Malayalam: സൈലന്റ് വാലീ നാഷണല് പാര്ക്ക്), is a national park with a core zone of 236.74 square kilometres (91 sq mi) (making it the second largest national park in Kerala). It is located in the Nilgiri Hills, within the Palakkad District of Kerala, South India. This region was explored in 1847 by the botanist Robert Wight, This park is one of the last undisturbed tracts of South Western Ghats mountain rain forests and tropical moist evergreen forest in India. Contiguous with the proposed Karimpuzha National Park (225 km2) to the north and Mukurthi National Park (78.46 km2) to the north-east, it is the core of the Nilgiri International Biosphere Reserve (1,455.4 km2), and is part of The Nilgiri Sub-Cluster (6,000+ km2), Western Ghats World Heritage Site, recognised by UNESCO in 2007.
Plans for a hydroelectric project that threatened the park's rich wildlife stimulated an environmentalist social movement in the 1970s, known as the Save Silent Valley movement, which resulted in cancellation of the project and creation of the park in 1980. The visitors' centre for the park is at Sairandhri.
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Wikipedia