 Dr. M.S.Swaminathan, the renowned agricultural scientist, and then secretary to the Department of Agriculture, called at the Silent Valley region and his suggestion was 389.52 km2 including the Silent Valley (89.52 km2), New Amarambalam (80 km2), Attappadi (120 km2) in Kerala and Kunda in Tamil Nadu (100 km2) reserve forests, should be made into a national rainforest biosphere reserve, with the aim of "preventing erosion of valuable genes from the area".