RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Wood­land has be­come syn­ony­mous with flood­ing, ris­ing rivers and the strug­gles of res­i­dents, but not many know about the won­ders of the com­mu­ni­ty—a place of qui­et rivers, misty morn­ings, hid­den is­lands, man­grove forests and birds that have found refuge in the South Oropouche wet­lands.

The rur­al vil­lage of about 2,500 peo­ple of­fers a glimpse of a breath­tak­ing­ly beau­ti­ful side of Trinidad that few peo­ple ever see.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, res­i­dent Tara Jaglal, who has spent more than 45 years in Wood­land, said the beau­ty of the wet­lands has al­ways been hid­ing in plain sight. She said it is this peace and seren­i­ty that has kept her there, de­spite the flood­ing and ne­glect.

The scenic rivers of­fer a refuge for fam­i­lies seek­ing some qui­et away from city life.

“Fam­i­lies can ac­tu­al­ly come and spend a day on the river­bank, pitch a tent. You can catch crab, you can catch fish, spend the en­tire day here,” she said.

“I in­vite any­body to come down to Wood­land and see how beau­ti­ful it is.”

How­ev­er, lo­cal his­to­ri­an and tour guide Roland Bin­da said that beau­ty stretch­es far be­yond the homes and roads.

He told Guardian Me­dia that deep in­side the Gordineau Swamp, there are five is­lands which re­main large­ly un­known to peo­ple out­side the area.

The is­lands form part of the Oropouche Wet­lands and sit with­in about 7,835 acres of swamp. Named Moses, Alex­is, Gin­ger, Av­o­cat and Mad­hoo, all five is­lands are record­ed on a 1990 Lands and Sur­vey map.

Bin­da said Moses Is­land is be­lieved to be the largest, cov­er­ing about 24 acres, while Alex­is Is­land is less than four acres. Gin­ger Is­land was once known for its gin­ger cul­ti­va­tion in the 1960s, while Mad­hoo Is­land was di­vid­ed by the New Cut Chan­nel, which was con­struct­ed in 1962.

Bin­da said the is­lands are still large­ly un­ex­plored and could be­come an at­trac­tion for peo­ple in­ter­est­ed in na­ture and his­to­ry.

He be­lieves the 21-acre prop­er­ty, sur­round­ed by rivers and man­groves, could be­come a tourist site if it were prop­er­ly mar­ket­ed.

For Bin­da, how­ev­er, the is­lands are al­so re­minders of a past which has been lost.

He said the New Cut Chan­nel changed the land­scape and agri­cul­ture in the area, with more than 100 acres of agri­cul­tur­al land lost.

Over the past ten years, the di­lap­i­da­tion of the flood­gates has re­sult­ed in large ex­pans­es of pas­ture­land be­ing in­un­dat­ed with salt­wa­ter.

Res­i­dent In­dar Boodram said the ef­fects of salt­wa­ter in­tru­sion and fre­quent flood­ing are still be­ing felt to­day.

Boodram, 67, said he re­mem­bers when res­i­dents cul­ti­vat­ed crops in the swamp, but added that salt­wa­ter in­tru­sion even­tu­al­ly forced many to aban­don their agri­cul­tur­al lands.

Say­ing many el­der­ly peo­ple now live in Wood­land, Boodram said he hoped the area could ben­e­fit from a PTSC bus ser­vice to trans­port the el­der­ly out of the com­mu­ni­ty.

Boodram said younger peo­ple are al­so leav­ing the area in search of work, while trans­porta­tion has be­come a prob­lem for those who re­main.

Tourism flour­ish­es

De­spite the rur­al ne­glect, tourism con­tin­ues to grow.

At Pope’s Ranch, owned by Kas­sim Mo­hammed, vis­i­tors can get a first-hand look at a wide va­ri­ety of birds. Mo­hammed said the wet­lands are be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly im­por­tant as a refuge for wildlife.

Out­side his fence, flocks of scar­let ibis can feed. There are more than 29 dif­fer­ent va­ri­eties of fish and over a dozen va­ri­eties of birds.

He said wild ducks, which are hunt­ed in oth­er ar­eas, al­so find a safer en­vi­ron­ment around the ranch.

Mo­hammed said pro­tect­ing the wet­lands must go hand in hand with pro­tect­ing the com­mu­ni­ty from flood­ing.

He be­lieves the rivers need to be cleaned and their banks re­built to im­prove drainage and re­duce flood­ing.

His wife, Kr­ishen­daye Mo­hammed, said the roads, drainage and light­ing in Wood­land al­so need up­grades. She and her fam­i­ly have been main­tain­ing the grassy verges of the com­mu­ni­ty, as well as fer­til­is­ing the poui trees plant­ed along the road­sides.

Mean­while, pres­i­dent of the Sus­tain­able Cli­mate Re­silience Ini­tia­tive Ed­ward Mood­ie, who has done ex­ten­sive re­search in Wood­land, said wet­lands sup­port a wide va­ri­ety of fish, crus­taceans, crabs, oys­ters, mam­mals, rep­tiles, am­phib­ians and birds.

Mood­ie be­lieves the com­mu­ni­ty can be­come an eco­tourism des­ti­na­tion, pro­vid­ed de­vel­op­ment is done care­ful­ly. He said the area has an abun­dance of flo­ra and fau­na and that res­i­dents are adapt­ing to changes in the wa­ter­ways.

One of the ar­eas be­ing con­sid­ered for de­vel­op­ment is the 40-foot chan­nel, com­mon­ly known as the Dredge Riv­er.

He de­scribed it as clean, with no hous­es along its banks. The plan in­cludes kayak­ing and pad­dle boats, while res­i­dents would be trained to work as tour guides and iden­ti­fy the dif­fer­ent bird species.

Among them is the an­hin­ga, a bird which dives and swims un­der­wa­ter and has now be­come a res­i­dent of Wood­land.

There are al­so herons, ja­canas and sev­er­al species of wild ducks, he added, not­ing that flamin­gos have al­so been seen in the area, but their lo­ca­tion is be­ing kept se­cret to pre­vent dis­tur­bance.

There are ef­forts to re­store the ecosys­tem be­neath the sur­face as well.

About 10,000 cas­cadu­ra fin­ger­lings have been bred for re­lease in­to Wood­land’s wa­ter­ways.

Re­li­gious sig­nif­i­cance

Mean­while, Pun­dit Shas­tri Ma­haraj said Wood­land is al­so a place of spir­i­tu­al im­por­tance.

At the Su­dama Teerath, fam­i­lies gath­er to per­form Hin­du cer­e­monies fol­low­ing the death of loved ones.

Ma­haraj said the site pro­vides a place of peace and seren­i­ty but is now in need of ur­gent re­pairs.

The steps are dam­aged, the plat­form is cracked, and parts of the com­pound have be­come haz­ardous.

“It is a kind of de­plorable sit­u­a­tion,” Ma­haraj said.

He said fam­i­lies come to the site at an al­ready vul­ner­a­ble time and should be able to per­form their prayers in a safe and com­fort­able en­vi­ron­ment.

Siparia May­or Dood­nath Mayrhoo agreed that Wood­land is a gem for eco­tourism.

Say­ing the com­mu­ni­ty’s nat­ur­al trea­sures should nev­er be over­looked, Mayrhoo said the five is­lands of the Gordineau Swamp can be de­vel­oped to fa­cil­i­tate bird­watch­ing and com­mu­ni­ty tourism.

He added that the red man­groves are rare and con­tin­ue to thrive in the swamp.

Mayrhoo said a project of that mag­ni­tude has to be ex­e­cut­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Tourism Min­istry, not­ing that he will arrange a meet­ing with res­i­dents to dis­cuss how tourism can be de­vel­oped in the area.