When poets & scientists fought the dam: How Silent Valley was saved

The Kunthi river, lifeline of Kerala’s

Silent Valley

National Park, is anything but quiet when it reaches Sairandhri. A striking rock, shaped like one of the valley’s elusive inhabitants — the black panther — splits the river as it roars past. Sometimes blue, often turquoise, and at times a deep emerald green, its waters remain pristine here, untouched by the most dangerous species on earth: humans.
This flow would have been stilled forever but for a rare act of human kindness half a century ago, when poets, writers and environmentalists came together to halt the

Silent Valley hydel project

. The plan would have felled thousands of trees and erased 850 hectares of evergreen forest. Because of the Silent Valley movement — the most successful green movement in India, next only to the Chipko movement — the forest lives on as a national park. Sept 7 marks the 40th anniversary of its inauguration.