Where to find dense rain forests? (Silent Valley? Periyar?)

Kilowatt

Hi all,

I've never seen a tropical rain forest but would like to. I don't have to see tigers; I am searching for a mixture of exotic plants which is so thick that sunbeams don't reach the ground. I guess India is not really the ultimate place to look for rain forests, but in late May I'll probably have the opportunity to travel 2 weeks somewhere through India by train. I googled around and found some information on Indian wildlife sanctuaries, which lead to the plan to go from Goa to Trivandrum and visit some of the sanctuaries in the Western Ghats. But which ones?

Periyar seems to be very touristical and focused on tigers and elephants with no really dense vegetation. Silent Valley seems difficult to get into, and even if you get a permission, you'll be killed by cobras, drunken out by leeches and mosquitos or fall down a slippery slope into thundering Kunthi river. So what to do?

What I am searching for is:

- see trees growing in several tiers with dense canopies, infested with epiphytic orchids, mosses and ferns since there are no such forests in Europe.
- experience a rain forest which Silent Valley websites desribe as "inside a great cathedral".
- enjoy the presence of colourful birds, butterflies, snails and monkeys, but that's not so important for me.
- I would *not* like to face tigers, gaurs, cobras or other dangerous animals and it's really not important for me to take photos of them (since I have two little children and would like to come back alive).

My experiences / expectances:

- I've been hiking through European forests (mostly along hiking paths), but have no experience in tropical zones. Hence I assume I could hike 2 or 3 km through the jungle, if not too step, but the distances to the camps in Silent Valley (20 km?) seem too far for me, especially in pre-Monsoon times.
- Weather: I'm not afraid of rain and thunderstorms. (Or should I?) In some photos of Silent Valley, I saw people carrying umbrellas. Is this really the recommended shelter?
- Accomodation: I would like to make trips of some hours, but I would prefer an accomodation with a "normal" bed (hopefully without snakes), in a suite (if available) rather than in a dormitory.
- Food: I would prefer to buy water and food (packages) rather than to prepare it myself and carry it with me.

Is it true that you can reach Silent Valley base camp Mukkali by jeep, have to hike 2 km and then to stop at the suspension bridge and turn back? Is the part of real rain forest behind the bridge? Does anyone have a map of this place?

Thanks a lot for any answer!

Greetings from Germany, where the trees have just flowered out their first green leaves,

Kilowatt

PeakXV

Here is is some information on Indian rain forests or jungles. I would concentrate on the North East myself. Enjoy!

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

mazha

Monsoon starts in Kerala in late May, and once the rains start, you'll have leeches whichever forest you go through. Since you don't have a lot of time, and like your creature comforts, you could try staying at Ponmudi (good hotels) near Trivandrum, and then trekking to Meenmutti from Kallar. Not sure whether you will find the "cathedral" trees you are looking for, but the forest is pretty dense that side. I think you don't need permits for that trek, but most of the other treks deep into the forest require permits and guides. I would advise you to get a guide for this one as well, rainforests can be really dangerous.

vandy

Hi there,

I saw some thick forests on the way to Hill station Munnar coming from Cochin.

rgds

vandy

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nomad

i think you can go to wayanad

http://www.vythiriresort.com/

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snonymous

Mazha is right, lots of rain forests with tall cathedral like trees and canopies at different levels en route to Ponmudi. Near Kallar you will see beautiful butterflies in the riparian forest area.
In Periyar if you do the nature walk or bamboo rafting programme, these are non touristy and you will enjoy the wet evergreen flora.
As Nomad rightly points out, Wayanadu district also has a lot of wet evergreen forests. From Calicut, you can also visit Thusharagiri waterfalls en route to Wayanadu, T'giri falls is in a wet evergreen forest, lots of 'cathedral' like trees dripping with epiphytes. The shola forests of the higher altitude regions of the Western Ghats such as the Niligiri, Palani and Anamalai hills are also wet evergreen forests dripping with all sorts of interesting flora. Tree ferns and orchids grow like weeds.
If you drive from Madurai to Kodaikanal, after the initial deciduous forests, come a very good stretch of wet evergreen forests, extremely tall trees dripping with orchids, ferns and lichens, exotic ground cover, tree ferns and all sorts of interesting flora.
Parts of Karnataka [Agumbe, Iruppu, etc] and Goa also have this type of forest cover. Matheran near Mumbai is an isolated patch of evergreen forest though not of the same category as the ones of Kerala. Bhimashankar near Pune has a good patch of very dense evergreen forest which is impenetrable in parts, but best enjoyed in the monsoons.
You would be extremely privileged to come across a tiger in any of these places. Undoubtedly they are there but not at all easily visible. Leopards maybe, tigers unlikely. Bisons, sambars etc. are fairly common but more likely you will spot langurs, nilgiri langurs, lion tailed macaques, hear birds [hard to spot in dense foliage], elephants, beautiful butterflies et al. The mustard and black Southern Birdwing butterfly - troides minos, the largest in India is fairly common in the forests of Kerala.
Leeches come with the territory and can be dispelled with salt or tobacco.
Vandy, Im looking forward to exploring those forests near Munnar later this month !

If you are interested, from Coimbatore you can easily go to Top Slip, Indira Gandhi WLS near Pollachi for easy access into a wet evergreen forest, there are lots of places for stay and well organised treks etc. Contact Jagdeesan at CJB on mobile: 91 9442370007 for transport and assistance.

snonymous

Check these links for more info on Silent Valley NP. Its about 4hrs drive from CJB via Anaikatti. Havent been there myself but read someones blog. They stayed at the Forest Rest House at Mukkali and were allowed to trek with a forest guide upto the watchtower at Sairandhri. Will post the blog link if I can get hold of it.

www.prd.kerala.gov.in/silent.htm
www.keralaforest.gov.in/html/tourism/silent.htm
www.keralaforest.org/html/wildlife/sanct.htm
kerala.gov.in/disttourism/pgt.htm
http://www.keralatourism.org/destina...-national-park

http://palakkad.nic.in
www.palghat.net/html/wildlife.htm

snonymous

For more details from someone who has done the Silent Valley trip please contact sameerbarde@gmail.com

Dr.Barai

i was in silent valley recently. did see rain forest there, but facilities there are so horrible that i ask myself if was it worth all the trouble?
its a much hyped place.

mikewill

Some great advice here from folk who know the area well. I'd like to add a little from a slightly different point of view.

One big difference to European forests is the fact that in India there are quite a few things that are dangerous - we get so used to being able to go pretty much anywhere with little risk (OK, wild boar can be tricky) but it does concentrate the mind walking and finding tiger pugmarks or fresh elephant dung (both happened to me in Periyar) especially if you're on your own. There will be snakes too, and they are not very easy to see. A friend very nearly stepped on a brown krait right in the camp at Kabini (Nagarahole NP) on her way to dinner!

Don't forget the information (maps, signs and so on) is likely to be less detailed than at home. Here in the UK our maps are so good that you can pretty much be sure of knowing where you are and which turning to take. Not so in India, where often the best information might be a hand-painted sign at the start of the trail. Often though, it will be possible to get someone who knows the area to accompany you.

The forests in the Western Ghats seem to me to be different to the ones I've visited in Malaysia, although I've not yet managed to get into good shola forest in the Ghats. However, it's well worth making the effort to get into the forest, especially if you have someone with you to help know what you're seeing. The further off the beaten track you go the more basic the accomodation is likely to be, but you ought to be able to find rest house accomodation that's not too rough. There's some nice forest rest houses in the middle of Periyar (the details are in another of my posts), or there's a nice place at Mundanthurai, which is actually in Tamil Nadu, but the sanctuary goes up into shola forest. Might need to get a permit in advance for this. Could have advantages as it's on the east side of the ghats and may well get rain at slightly different times. Great butterflies and birds, plenty of monkeys and deer, and apparently a good place for the rusty spotted cat which is not big enough to be dangerous, although the leopard that left its pugmarks outside our room might have been.

Hope this is some help, but local knowledge can't be bettered!

snonymous

Greetings Mikewill
Yes, local guides are the best bet in Indian jungles. The forest departments of all Indian states run forest rest houses which can be booked in advance, usually from the office of the concerned District Forest Officer, or higher up from the office of the PCCF of the State. If you have any affiliations with wildlife societies such as WWF, BNHS or any other such organisation, it is easy to get such bookings especially in a non vacation period. Local forest guides can be hired on an ad hoc basis from the staff at the rest house. Some states like Kerala actively promote forest tourism by employing local tribals as forest guides.

Forest rest houses are well located but usually basic and it is a good idea to take ample provisions along if it is in a remote area, the caretaker will cook for you but may not always have enough supplies.

federica

As far as I know Silent Valley has the only "original" tropical rainforest in South India. That doesn't mean that the whole valley is forest!

I spent only a weekend there, so I am not experienced to give trekking advice for the area. But I am glad that I had the opportunity to visit, the rainforest is amazing.

snonymous

Rain forest is just a common phrase used to describe wet/moist evergreen forests which receive a high annual rainfall.

At lower altitudes, the trees are very tall - there are several such patches of forests in the Western ghats of India and in the North East as well.

At higher altitudes the rain forest is referred to as montane evergreen and 'shola' forest. Shola forests are often interspersed with large areas of grassland, and stunted because of the high wind velocity at those altitudes.

Moist evergreen forests are dense, dripping with lianas, ferns, orchids, lichens and other epiphytes. The forest floor is always "mulched" and moist. You will find tree ferns at certain altitudes and carpets of ground orchids and other tuberous flora. In certain areas, the canopy is very thick and light does not penetrate too much. Streams and waterfalls flow through these jungles. I use the word jungle intentionally, as forest is too tame.

In certain high altitude regions of South India such as the Nilgiri and Palani hills areas and Im sure many other places, large tracts of indigenous forests were cleared and replaced with plantations of foreign species such as wattle, eucalyptus, pine and other such varieties. Gradually they became naturalised and self sustaining. In recent years, the forest departments have reforested the region with indigenous species, which is why you will find mixed forests of Australian and Alpine plantation species, interspersed with natural shola as well as tall moist evergreen species, in these regions.

mikewill

Very helpful Snonymous - hope you won't mind if I get in touch when planning our next trip, possibly later this year.

Just one more thought for Kilowatt, whose question set all this off. You might want to look at 'A Birdwatchers Guide to India' by Kris Kazmierczak & Raj Singh Published by Prion ISBN 1 871104 08 4

It has good detail for many birding sites right across India, with a good section on the South Indian NPs and Sanctuaries mentioned in this thread, plus some recommendations for other sites where it might be easier to trek / walk in the way you're after.

Mike

snonymous

Anytime Mike. Cheers.