The National Park is a valley very small in size when compared to the length of the boundary line. The configuration of the Valley is that of a long strip. It is very narrow and the maximum width is only a few kilometres. This renders the Valley vulnerable to all kinds of external influences.

The Silent Valley National Park is known for its richness'of flora and fauna. Many of them are endemic to the locality and a few are rare and threatened in their areas of distribution. The resplendence of this biological spectrum is chiefly a consequence of micro-climatic variations. The continuity of forest cover extending well beyond the National Park provides a kind of stability to these micro-climatic conditions. The Silent Valley National Park is surrounded by the Mannarkkad and Nilambur (South) forest divisions of Kerala and Mukurthi National Park of Tamil Nadu. These form a natural buffer and extend several kilometres outside. Theoretically this buffer should take all shocks arising out of human interactions and provide the National Park a permanent insulation. In practice, this is true only to a certain extent. The fact is that a large portion of these buffer areas is under severe stress and the spillover effects on the National Park could be enormous in the long run.

The major destructive factor in this forest environment is wild fire. The entire area outside Silent Valley National Park experiences periodic outbreaks of fire year after year causing severe biomass erosion and consequent retrogression in the forest ecosystem. The stability/equilibrium of macroclimate in an area depends very much on the community homostasis of the ecosystem. The reduction in forest biomass can destabilize the long established checks and balances within the ecosystem leading to major changes in the micro-climates. This can very often set up a vicious cycle of forest fire, climatic instability and forest destruction until a fire-adapted forest ecosystem replaces the wet-evergreen forest. The overall impact of these changes in turn will affect the forests of Silent Valley too even if these are meticulously protected from wildfire and other retrogressive factors. The endemic flora and fauna will be the most threatened in the face of these catastrophic changes, followed by the rare and threatened species. Hence, fire protection in and around the National Park should receive the highest priority in the overall strategy of forest conservation and management.

The remoteness and comparative inaccessibility of the National Park breed problems of their own. The most critical area in the National Park from this perspective is the Sispara pass and environs. This is the junction of four forest divisions and is under the weakest surveillance of the protection staff. Thus this locality is virtually a no-man's land and ideal ground for the movement of antisocial and illicit gangs. It is not easy for the staff of any one division to effectively control such distant localities. The concerned neighbouring divisions should jointly manage the protection of these remote common points. Special protection squads should be created for this task, out of the protection staff of these affected divisions and they should be put on special duty for short spells. There are no other ways of ensuring protection to such remote comers of the forest A common field station with all basic amenities must be set up at Sispara and jointly managed by the Silent Valley, Nilambur (South) and Mannarkkad divisions and by the Mukkurthy National Park of Tamil Nadu.

The next critical area from the point of view of protection to Silent Valley National Park is the activities of the tribal communities living in the adjacent Attapady Valley, particularly Anavai hamlet upwards on either side of river Bhavani. These are traditional tribal communities but greatly influenced and misguided by external criminal forces. These people are indulging in wanton destruction of forests for all kinds of deleterious land uses. Their uncontrolled expansion into the adjacent forest tracts is posing a grave threat to Silent Valley National Park. The development of these tribals should be re-oriented for better and ecologically safe land use, so that they can move towards selfreliance appropriate to the local situation. This will have a long-term positive impact on the future protection strategies of the Silent Valley National Park.

Tourism may pose another major threat to the well being of the National Park. Management of the forest and its biodiversity conservation must get predominance over the needs of tourism. There is no need to 'attract' people to the forests in the name of encouraging tourism. We should ensure that the visitors strictly follow a code of conduct in tune with the needs of nature conservation, so that the sanctity of the forest environment is not destroyed. The visitors should undergo a series of sensitising educational programmes before they visit the National Park. This should form an integral part of a visit to the National Park. A well-managed educational programme on nature as well as forest conservation can easily divert the visitor-pressure from the National Park. Preparing the visitors for a day or two and engaging them with a nature appreciation course can be a good input in environmental education and in protection of the National Park.

Non-governmental Organisations are emerging as a major force to reckon with in building up conservation awareness and bridging the gap between the Forest Department and the people. These fora can be strengthened to act as a second line of defence to collaborate with the Department in conservation efforts. Eventually these fora can evolve into effective pro-conservation forces. The Wildlife Warden can take the initiative in creating these linkage institutions. This will open up great avenues for addressing the conservation needs of the National Park and wider issues of nature conservation in general. The movement in the seventies for saving the forests of Silent Valley has amply demonstrated the way. History is there to learn from and it can serve as a guide to the future.

Nature conservation or forest protection has been falling back always on defensive strategies in the past and the result is evident. Many forests have vanished into thin air leaving a trail of ecological destruction. We should realise that our country will become a desert unless the forests are well managed and protected. It is high time the Forest Department positively interacted with the people. to devise feasible participatory processes to achieve the objectives of conservation. If we fail to rise to the occasion in carrying out our bounden duty, posterity will not forgive us.