Sispara peak, elevation 2,206 metres (7,238 ft) is in the northeast end of
Silent Valley National Park, in
Kerala state, in the core area of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, in the Western Ghats of South
India. It is near the southwest end of Mukurthi National Park in Tamil Nadu state. One can approach this peak by passing northwest up behind the bungalow, and ascending the high bluff below the peak.
Half an hour's walk leads to a vertical precipice of the escarpment facing the plains of Malabar. Numerous lofty trees growing at the foot of the precipice reach the brim of this point. A walk along the edge of this escarpment brings one to a huge peaking mass of rock, a few hundred yards from the foot of the highest Sispara summit, which stands like a battlement on a wall. In 1886, Henry Francis Blanford, geologist of the Geological Survey of India.
The view from this point is really magnificent, particularly that of the gigantic amphitheatre to the right, the termination of the Koondahs on this side. It is very striking to look at this stupendous semicircular recess, formed by enormously lofty mountains, the summits of which rise vertically to thousands of feet, and whose abrupt sides are deeply corroded by ravines and chasms, down which small but romantic cascades precipitate themselves, adding to the magnificence of this stupendous scenery.
Extending northeast from Sispara peak over 20 miles (32 km) in a magnificent amphitheatre of precipices and steep hills in the
Nilambur South Forest Division to Mukurthi peak (2,554 m (8,379 ft) is the great western escarpment of the Kundah Range. Sispara peak is the abode of the Toda tribes people ancestral spirits. It is the second highest peak in the core area of Silent Valley,
Anginda Peak at 2,383 metres (7,818 ft), being the highest. The forests near Sisapara are exposed to the full force of the southwest monsoon and receive up to 250 inches (640 cm) per year of rain,but suffer from a long drought during the winter.
Flora and fauna:
From Sispara peak there is a panoramic view of deep valleys packed with dense vegetation. The Sispara pass leading down into Silent Valley, is enveloped in foliage and remains hidden even from the top of the peak. Robert Wight, a surgeon turned botanist, ventured into this area in the middle of the 19th century. In the process, Wight discovered seven new species from Sispara and the adjoining jungles and as many as 122 Indian plants have been named after him. The Sispara Day Gecko is found here. The Gecko Geckoella nebulosa was abundant near the foot of the Sispara slopes.
The endangered plants Glochidion sisparense, Ilex gardneriana, Melicope indica, Memecylon sisparense, Pavetta hohenackeri, Peliosanthes neilgherrensis, Pogostemon paludosus, Pygeum sisparense, Symplocos Pulchra and Youngia nilgiriensis are endemic to the Sispara area. The now endangered Impatiens denisonii was once very abundant along the Sispara Ghat on rocks and trees of the western slopes of the Nilgiris at elevations of 900 metres (3,000 ft) to 1,500 metres (4,900 ft).
