REPORT

ON THE

SANITARY CONDITION

OF THE

CANTONMENT OF POONA,

INSPECTED IN OCTOBER 1876.

     THE Cantonment of Poona, reached by the G. I. P. Railway at a distance
of 119 miles from Bombay, is situated in latitude 18° 30' 41" north and longi-
tude 73° 55' 21" east, at an elevation of 1,850 feet above the level of the sea, from
which it is about 70 miles distant in a straight line. It is the largest and most
important military station in the Bombay Command, and as such has often before
been reported upon by previous Sanitary Commissioners. It will therefore be
unnecessary in this report to describe its physical geography or climate, as infor-
mation on these points is already in the possession of Government, but in
obedience to the order conveyed in Government Resolution in the General Depart-
ment, No. 2617, dated 23rd August 1876, I will confine my remarks to point-
ing out in detail all sanitary defects in drainage, water supply, conservancy, &c.,
and will try to indicate what improvements are most urgently required and how
they may best be carried out.

     2. It may, however, be useful to state that the Cantonment covers an
area of 4½ square miles, and that it lies partly on the watershed of the Muta
river which flows past the City of Poona on the west, whilst the surface drainage
from the eastern part is carried off by two nullahs which discharge themselves
into the conjoined streams which form the Muta Mula River which extends
along but is separated by the civil lines and by cultivated fields from the
northern face of the Cantonment. I would also recall to recollection that the
rock, on which the Cantonment stands, consists of the Deccan trap which in
places crops up to the surface but which especially towards the north-east is
covered with a thick layer of black cotton soil.

     3. The garrison of Poona at the date of my inspection consisted of—