20 years of prayer at Piparo mud volcano

On February 22, 1997, Piparo which was previously known as the home of reputed drug lord Dole Chadee, gained further national prominence when villagers were awakened to tremors and a deep rumbling sound which unleashed the most powerful mud volcano eruption in local history. Villagers, many still in their sleeping clothes, scampered out of their homes in an attempt to save life and limb as within the first few minutes, the mud volcano spewed black mud and gases some 50 feet into the air.

According to an eyewitness, six minutes into the eruption, an even more powerful eruption occurred as mud spewed about 120 feet into the morning sky.

Cars and homes were buried under a square mile of mud that quickly hardened into a concrete- like mixture. Half of the village cemetery remains buried under the (now solidified) mud “lake”, which has two small oozing mounds at its centre that occasionally spatter out small eruptions of mud-like clay. Though no one was killed, 31 families were permanently displaced from their homes.

According to villager Sachin Ramsubag, 20 years later many persons, both foreign and local, still visit the site to observe the black sulphur-rich mud and the still bubbling mud mounds. Another resident, Ben Lal Ragbir, whose family of four had been resettled at Buen Intento Village, Princes Town, and who was instrumental in organising the prayer sessions, said this was the villagers’ way of giving thanks for their lives being spared on that fateful morning.

“Anyone who lived through that day would understand why we do these prayers year after year,” he said, adding, “We are just thankful for our lives although we lost almost everything to the volcano.”