Divali horrors for swamp birds

THE EDITOR: The skies over the river at Westmoorings on Divali night were thick with egrets and other swamp birds driven from their resting spots by intense fusillades of fireworks from residents celebrating the holiday of lights with the addition of ear-splitting reports. The birds were panicked from the mangrove lining the Diego Martin river. They flew wildly back and forth, turning, swooping low and rising again, at a loss where to go, what to do, where to find rest.

The continuing explosions and flashes sent them into further turmoil that lasted long after humanity ran out of the devices of torture. The young in our society should take long hard looks at the egrets and swamp birds, for they will not be around much longer, as they will be driven to extinction by unthinking, selfish “fun-lovers” whose “mad, inhuman noises” also drive cats and dogs wild. It’s a pity that civilising influences so frequently get lost in the march of so-called progress.

MARTIN RIVER
Port-of-Spain