Piparo is a village in Central Trinidad on the southern edge of the Central Range. The village has three main claims to fame:

1. Piparo was the base of operations of Dole Chadee (born Nankissoon Boodram), a notorious drug lord who was executed in 1999 for the murder of four members of the Baboolal family.
2. Piparo was the home of Ras Shorty I (born Garfield Blackman) during his self-imposed break from the soca world. Living simply in this rural community Ras Shorty-I developed jamoo, a fusion of soca and gospel music.
3. Piparo was the site of a large mud volcano eruption on February 22, 1997. The eruption covered an area of 2.5 km² and displaced 31 families. The mud volcano now lies active where the eruption took place ( as of October 2019).^[1]

During the early twentieth century, Piparo was an important cocoa bean producer.

The small village is mainly inhabited by people of African and Indian descent. There is a mandir, two mosques, and three churches.

Since the eruption in 1997, an alternate road to the village has been established through the village of Guaracara or a detour around the volcanic site through Panchoo trace.

10°20′N 61°20′W / 10.333°N 61.333°W / 10.333; -61.333

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  Remnants of the damage, 11 yrs later
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  Piparo damage
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  Main vent at Piparo

References