268 Measures outside the Bombay Presidency. [CHAP. IX.
any Native State or Railway Administration or Railway Company
when such moneys are by agreement or otherwise so recoverable."
Hardwar and Kankhal.
The Hardwar
Municipal
Union.
The three small towns of Hardwar, Kankhal and Jawalapur form
the Hardwar Municipal Union in the Saharanpur District of the North-
Western Provinces.* A short branch of the Bengal and North-
Western Railway runs from Laksar Junction (near Roorki) to
Hardwar. Hardwar is one of the great pilgrim centres of India;
Hindus from all parts of the country flock to the place at certain
periods of the year to bathe in the Ganges. The existence of plague
at a centre of this nature was a formidable menace to the health of the
whole country.
Hardwar
outbreak of
April to June
1897.
Kankhal
outbreak of
September to
November 1897.
The first outbreak occurred at Hardwar in April and was probably
due to infection carried by pilgrims from Sind. The vigorous and well
devised measures that were adopted stamped out the disease, after the
occurrence of eighteen ascertained cases, by the end of the first week
in June. The outbreak at Kankhal began in the middle of September
and by the 4th November fifty-one cases had occurred. The disease
then quickly abated and the last case occurred on the 10th of Novem-
ber.
North-Western
Provinces
Government.
Resolutions
describing
operations at
Hardwar and
Kankhal,
In a resolution, dated the 22nd July, the Government of the North-
Western Provinces and Oudh published a full account of the measures
successfully adopted to combat the outbreak at Hardwar, and in a
resolution of the 4th November an account was given of the events con-
nected with the Kankhal outbreak up to that date. These two resolu-
tions give a very clear account of the measures enforced and their
effect on the course of the disease; they are reproduced in full below.
HARDWAR.
Religious fairs of
April.
"Up to April 1897 no report of the appearance of bubonic plague
at Hardwar had reached the Government; but in the month of April
1897 two large and important bathing fairs were held at Hardwar-
the first (Amawas) on the 2nd April, and the second (Adha Kumbhi)
on the 11th, at which it was expected that pilgrims from plague-
infected areas would attend. It is estimated that at the first fair
about 40,000 people were present, and at the second about 200,000.
Many of those who came to the first fair remained at Hardwar for the
second.
Arrangements
for dealing with
the pilgrims.
"Special arrangements were made for dealing with the large
number of pilgrims expected to attend the fairs and for preventing
* See Map, Volume IV, page 14.
Some other cases have since occurred in the neighbourhood,