Chooriyode is a village in the
Palakkad district of
Kerala State, South India. The headquarters is
Mannarkkad Taluk. It is situated 35 km north-east of the district headquarters
Palakkad, on the way to Kozhikode
National Highway 213 (NH-213) and in the foothills of the
Western Ghats.
Silent Valley (a tropical evergreen rain forest with an unbroken evolutionary history of 50 million years) is only 45 km from Chooriyode.
Chooriyode river is a tributary of the
Bharathapuzha.
A comprehensive study on fish diversity of Chooriyode river, the largest branch of west-flowing river in Kerala, found it as the richest in fish species among the chooriyode rivers. It recorded the presence of 117 species, with three species
endemic to the river.
Although the
Kunthipuzha stream of the
Thootha Puzha tributary flowing through the
Silent Valley National Park had the lowest species richness (25 species), it has very high conservation value, as two endemic species —
Balitora jalpally and
Mesonoemacheilus remadevi — are restricted to this stream, highlighting the importance of protected areas such as Silent Valley in the conservation of endemic biodiversity, the study said.