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Befriend an elephant Shake hands Discover the elephant's point of view. Feast your eyes on the most exotic of wildlife. And realize that there's much more to life when a deer stops to look at you. When a monkey decides to renew acquaintance. When a blue-winged Parakeet sings for you. This sanctuary was set up specially for the preservation of Nilgiri Tahr, one of the seriously endangered animals. Now the number of tahrs has increased and they constitute the largest known population of tahrs existing in the world. In addition to Tahr, the park shelters elephants, Sambars, gaurs, lion-tailed macaque, Nilgiri Langur, tigers and leopards.
Accommodation and board facilities are available at Munnar, the nearest town, which is connected to Kottayam (148 km.) and Ernakulam (130 km.) by road. There is a motorable road up to Rajamally. Further, travel is on foot, but the trekking is really enjoyable.The Silent Valley contains India's last substantial stretch of tropical evergreen rain forests and it is perhaps the only vestige of a near virgin forest in the whole of the Western Ghats. Elephants, tigers, wild dog, flying squirrel and lion-tailed macaque are found here.
Vehicular traffic is allowed up to Mukkali from Mannarghat. From Mukkali one has to cover at least 24 km on foot to reach the source of river Kuntipuzha, which flows through the valley.The most renowned destination is the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary at Thekkady, one of India's major sanctuary areas. The drive to Thekkady itself is enchanting as the road winds through tranquil countryside, rich plantations and thick jungles.The sanctuary offers a lovely and comfortable way to see the animals via boat rides on the man-made lake, which the wildlife areas encircle. In addition to the wild life, there are water and land birds galore here, and one can sometimes find dedicated bird watchers setting in for one or two weeks of serious observations.
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