Canning | |
|---|---|
Town | |
 Canning railway station | |
  Canning Location in West Bengal Show map of West Bengal Canning Location in India Show map of India | |
| Coordinates:22°18′50″N88°39′54″E / 22.3139917°N 88.6650753°E /22.3139917; 88.6650753 | |
| Country |  India |
| State |  West Bengal |
| Division | Presidency |
| District | South 24 Parganas |
| Elevation | 6 m (20 ft) |
| Languages | |
| • Official | Bengali[1][2] |
| • Additional official | English[1] |
| Time zone | UTC+5:30 (IST) |
| PIN | 743329 |
| Telephone code | +91 3218 |
| Vehicle registration | WB-19 toWB-22,WB-95 toWB-99 |
| Lok Sabha constituency | Jaynagar (SC) |
| Vidhan Sabha constituency | Canning Purba,Canning Paschim (SC) |
| Website | www |
Canning (Bengali:[kæn̪iŋ]) is a town of theSouth 24 Parganas district in theIndianstate ofWest Bengal. It is situated on the western banks of theMatla River. It is the headquarters of theCanning subdivision.
This town is named afterLord Canning, the former Governor General ofIndia from 1856 to 1858, and Governor General and Viceroy from 1858 to 1862.[3]
H. E. A. Cotton writes, "The year 1864… It witnessed also the speculative mania over an unlucky scheme for the reclamation of theSunderbans, of which nothing remains but the deserted wharves of Port Canning, but which resulted in ruin to many".[4] The idea of developing a major port at the town faded with the choking of theMatla River as a result of inadequate headwater supply.[5]
Lord Canning had wanted to build a port that would be an alternative toKolkata and a rival toSingapore. What no one heeded were the warnings of a lowly shipping inspectorHenry Piddington, who had lived in theCaribbean and knew all about hurricanes and storms. He wanted themangroves to be left alone, as they were Bengal's defensive barrier against nature's fury and absorbed the initial onslaught of cyclonic winds, waves and tidal surges. The settlement was built with a strand, hotels and homes, but in 1867 theMatla River surged and reduced the town to a "bleached skeleton".[6][7] Port Canning was closed in 1871–2, and government facilities withdrawn.[8] Today, the Canning House, which probably served as the office of Canning Port still stands. It is in dilapidated condition and is a protected monument under West Bengal Heritage Commission.[9]
In 1862, theEastern Bengal Railway opened a southward line from what was then known asBeliaghata station to Port Canning. In the same year, the Eastern Bengal Railway had opened its line fromSealdah toKushtia. The Eastern Bengal Railway was taken over by the government in 1887. Services on the eastern side ofHooghly River were unified under the Eastern Bengal State Railway and after further amalgamation in 1942, the Bengal Assam Railway.[10]
Canning subdivision has a very low level of urbanization. Only 12.37% of the population lives in the urban areas and 87.63% lives in the rural areas. There are 8census towns inCanning I CD block and only 2 in the rest of the subdivision. The entire district is situated in theGanges Delta with numerous islands in the southern part of the region. The area (shown in the map below) borders on theSundarbans National Park and a major portion of it is a part of theSundarbans settlements. It is a flat low-lying area in the South Bidyadhari plains. TheMatla River is prominent and there are many streams and water channels locally known askhals. A comparatively recent country-wide development is the guarding of the coastal areas with special a coastal force.[11][12][13]
Note: The map below presents some of the notable locations in the subdivision. All places marked in the map are linked in the larger full screen map.
Canning is located at22°18′50″N88°39′54″E / 22.3139917°N 88.6650753°E /22.3139917; 88.6650753. It has an average elevation of 6 metres (20 ft).[14]
Canning is the gateway of theSundarbans.[15] It is situated on the western banks of theMatla River. One can cross the Matla River and then proceed toBasanti for a boat to the interior of the Sundarbans or hire a motor launch for travel to Sundarbans at the town itself. The first watch tower atSajnekhali is about 5 hours away.[16]
Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate astropical wet and dry (Aw).
The overall climate of Canning is humid and warm. In summer, the maximum temperature goes 35 °C while in mild winters, minimum temperature drops 14 °C. The highest temperature ever was 42.5 °C, recorded on 17 May 1987. The lowest temperature ever dropped was 7.6 °C, dropped on 30 January 2007. The mean annual temperature is 26.5 °C. Average annual rainfall is approximately 1850 mm, 85 days feel the rain. Air is humid throughout the year, the amount is 77%.
| Climate data for Canning (1991–2020, extremes 1980–2020) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 32.0 (89.6) | 38.0 (100.4) | 40.6 (105.1) | 42.2 (108.0) | 42.5 (108.5) | 40.6 (105.1) | 38.8 (101.8) | 38.5 (101.3) | 37.0 (98.6) | 36.2 (97.2) | 33.6 (92.5) | 32.0 (89.6) | 42.5 (108.5) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 25.4 (77.7) | 29.5 (85.1) | 33.6 (92.5) | 35.5 (95.9) | 35.6 (96.1) | 34.3 (93.7) | 32.6 (90.7) | 32.3 (90.1) | 32.4 (90.3) | 32.0 (89.6) | 29.9 (85.8) | 26.8 (80.2) | 31.7 (89.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 13.2 (55.8) | 17.1 (62.8) | 22.0 (71.6) | 25.2 (77.4) | 26.6 (79.9) | 27.0 (80.6) | 26.7 (80.1) | 26.7 (80.1) | 26.4 (79.5) | 24.6 (76.3) | 19.4 (66.9) | 14.6 (58.3) | 22.4 (72.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 7.0 (44.6) | 9.8 (49.6) | 13.4 (56.1) | 16.6 (61.9) | 18.0 (64.4) | 17.5 (63.5) | 21.2 (70.2) | 22.4 (72.3) | 22.5 (72.5) | 18.2 (64.8) | 12.4 (54.3) | 8.5 (47.3) | 7.0 (44.6) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 16.0 (0.63) | 24.7 (0.97) | 28.0 (1.10) | 59.3 (2.33) | 142.0 (5.59) | 284.7 (11.21) | 410.4 (16.16) | 379.6 (14.94) | 310.1 (12.21) | 170.3 (6.70) | 37.8 (1.49) | 6.1 (0.24) | 1,869 (73.58) |
| Average rainy days | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 3.5 | 7.0 | 13.0 | 18.0 | 17.2 | 13.4 | 6.3 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 84.5 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%)(at 17:30IST) | 68 | 61 | 60 | 69 | 74 | 80 | 84 | 85 | 87 | 83 | 77 | 74 | 75 |
| Source:India Meteorological Department[17][18][19] | |||||||||||||
Canning is not identified as a separate place in the 2011 census records. The map of the CD block Canning I on the page number 333 in theDistrict Census Handbook 2011 for the South 24 Parganas district shows Canning as being a part of theMatla andDighirpar census towns.[20]
Canning police station covers an area of 204.34 km2 (78.90 sq mi). It has jurisdiction over parts of theCanning I andCanning II CD blocks.[21][22]
Canning women police station has jurisdiction over parts of theCanning I andCanning II CD blocks.[23][22]
The headquarters of theCanning I CD block are located at Canning.[24]
TheDistrict Human Development Report, South 24 Parganas, writes, "Canning has emerged as a major market for supply of fish to Kolkata. The fishermen of the area bring their catch to the all-night fish market at Canning. Here the commission agents receive the fish and auction them. It is bought by the wholesalers and transported to Kolkata for sale to retailers, who sell it in different markets. However, as greater part of Kolkata’s fish now come from South India and Madhya Pradesh, local wholesale trade at Canning has lost out in the competition. There is, of course, scope of reviving this market once again".[25]
In 1980–81, Canning produced 332.5 tonnes of fresh domestic fish and 60.2 tonnes of exportable prawns. While the exportable prawns were despatched to processors at Kolkata, 59% of the fresh domestic fish was sent to markets in Kolkata.[26]
As of 2019, the daily demand in the Kolkata fish market is around 550 tonnes. Andhra Pradesh-Telangana-Odisha supplies around 150 tonnes and the balance 400 tonnes is local supply from around Kolkata.[27]
With the electrification of the railways, suburban traffic has grown tremendously since the 1960s. As of 2005–06, more than 1.7 million (17 lakhs) commuters use theKolkata Suburban Railway system daily. After the partition of India, refugees from East Pakistan/ Bangladesh had a strong impact on the development of urban areas in the periphery of Kolkata. The new immigrants depended on Kolkata for their livelihood, thus increasing the number of commuters. Eastern Railway runs 1,272 EMU trains daily.[30]
Canning Subdivisional Hospital, with 100 beds, is the major government medical facility in the Canning subdivision.[37]
Media related toCanning, South 24 Parganas at Wikimedia Commons
