New species found in Silent Valley National Park

#GS-03 Biodiversity

Silent Valley National Park

Silent Valley National Park is located in state of Kerala in the Nilgiri hills.
Silent Valley National Park is part of the Western Ghats World Heritage Site.
It is the last remaining rain forest in state of Kerala.
It was declared Reserve Forest in the year 1914 and later in 1984 it was declared as the National Park.
Silent Valley region is locally known as Sairandhrivanam, which translates as Sairandhri’s
Silent Valley is home to the largest population of Lion tailed macaques which is an endangered primate species.
River Kunthi, originating from the Nilgiri hills, traverses the entire length of the valley.
The area was named ‘Silent Valley’ by the British due to a perceived absence of noisy Cicadas.
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research, ICAR (India) identified Silent Valley as a region with high biodiversity and an important Gene Pool resource for Recombinant DNA

Brown wood owl, Banded Bay cuckoo, Malabar wood shrike, White-throated kingfisher, Indian nightjar, Jungle nightjar, and Large cuckoo shrike are some of the 17 new species recently identified in the Silent Valley.
A survey held in 2006 identified as many as 139 birds including birds such as Crimson-backed sunbird, Yellow-browed bulbul, Black bulbul, Indian white-eye and Indian swiftlet.
Several species endemic to high elevation areas were also identified during the survey.
These include Nilgiri laughingthrush, Nilgiri flowerpecker, Brown-cheeked fulvetta, Black-and-orange flycatcher, Grey-headed canary-flycatcher, Greenish warbler, Common chiffchaff, Tytler’s leaf warbler, Shaheen falcon, Nilgiri wood pigeon, and Malabar whistling thrush.