SYMBOL OF SILENT VALLEY

Lion-tailed macaque remains vulnerable despite past victories

- K A SHAJI

In the 1970-80s, the Kerala State Electricity Board proposed a hydroelectric dam across the Kunthipuzha river in Silent Valley. The project threatened to submerge the pristine rainforests of Silent Valley, one of the last continuous habitats of the lion-tailed macaque. Scientists, students and local communities united to stop the project in one of India's earliest major environmental movements, and made the primate a symbol of the fragile interconnectedness of life in the Western Ghats.

In 1983, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi cancelled the project and declared the area a national park. The movement became a landmark in India's environmental history and the macaque, once a symbol of vulnerability, became a beacon of hope.