Enchanting Kerala

KERALA TOURISM NEWSLETTER

Book Review - Silent Valley National Park

The coffee table book, ‘Silent Valley National Park’, a part of the series ‘Sanctuary for the Soul’, is in every sense food for the soul.

Published by Stark World on behalf of Kerala Tourism, the series comprises four books dealing with the four major wildlife sanctuaries in Kerala.

In the book ‘Silent Valley National Park’ the writer Manu Remakant, through his narrative, lures the reader gently into the bewitching embrace of the rainforests. While the stunning photographs by the renowned wildlife photographer, Balan Madhavan, does most of the talking, the narrator quietly but assertively takes us through the history of the national park.

The story of how a virgin forest was violated by the greed of mankind and how she fought back, how the fight for a single river, Kunthi, became a fight for all rivers, how the forest slowly and steadily reclaimed what was lost… the tales are all poignantly sketched.

 The book, through its lush imagery and subtle yet powerful prose doesn’t just show us Silent Valley. Rather, it gives us a taste, a flavor of its soul and a glimpse of its heart and the culture it cradles there.

The answer of a Range Officer to the question “How is a river born?” in many senses bottles the essence of the magic of the wilderness.

His answer was thus-

“Well, I would say it begins from a dew drop on a blade of grass somewhere in the northern side, either in Kozhipara or Sispara. When it takes more dew than what a blade of grass can carry, it bends its head and lets the drop dribble down its body. Now imagine a whole mountain carpeted with so much grass and trees. How much water might be dribbling down from them! Add to that the torrential rains that lash the place!

A river is born.”

The book has done justice to the Silent Valley National Park. The Kunthi, silent, gentle and soothing meanders through its pages!