Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/184

This page needs to be proofread.



172 NAGPUR DISTRICT. Twenty-six miles of this line lie within the District. The partially opened Nagpur-Chhatisgarh Railway also intersects Nagpur District for a distance of about twenty-four miles. Administration. — In 1861, Nágpur was formed into a separate District of the British Government of the Central Provinces. It is administered by a Deputy Comunissioner with Assistants and tahsildárs. Total revenue in 1876–77, £135,220, of which the land-tax yielded £83,416; total revenue in 1883–84, £154,275, of which the land-tax contributed £82,881. The pándhri, a kind of house-tax, is peculiar to this part of the country. Total cost of District officials and police of all kinds in 1883–84, £19,545. Number of civil and revenue judges of all sorts within the District, 18; magistrates, 22. Maximum distance from any village to the nearest court, 38 miles; average distance, 21 miles. Number of police, 1005 men, costing £13,212; being i policeman to about every 3 miles and to every 694 inhabitants. The daily average number of prisoners in jail in 1883 was 848, of whom 52 were females. The total cost of the jails in that year was £5383. The number of Government or aided schools in the District under Government inspection was 197, attended by 11,502 pupils. During the year 1882, no less than 181,191 persons visited the Nágpur Museuin. Medical Aspects.—The year is divided into three seasons: the hot, from the beginning of April to the beginning of June ; the rainy season sets in in June, and lasts till September, the latter month and October being generally close and sultry, though refreshed by occasional showers; the cold weather occupies the intervening months till the ensuing April. The annual mean temperature at Nagpur for a period of twelve years is returned at 78.7° F., the monthly means being — January, 68.6°; February, 73.8°; March, 81'8°; April, 88-7' ; May, 93°; June, 86'2°; July, 79*1°; August, 79°; September, 79*1°; October, 77•1°; November, 70'9°; and December, 674'. In 1883, the teniperature in the shade at the civil station was returned as follows :May, highest reading 11707° F., lowest 75.5° ; July, highest 94'3", lowest 71•1°; December, highest 82.2°, lowest 43.1°. The average annual rainfall is returned at 43.88 inches. The rainfall in 1893 amounted to 61'45 inches, being 17.57 inches above the average. From the middle of September to the middle of December is the most unhealthy period of the year. The prevailing disease is fever, but cholera is occasionally cpidemic; of late years, the ravages of small-pox have been materially lessened by vaccination. The total number of registered deaths in 1883 was 21,456 (from fever, 4587), equal to a rate of 44.63 per thousand, as against an annual mean of 33'66 per thousand for the previous five years. Nagpur has a lunatic and a leper asylum, and a medical school; and during the year 1883, 10 charitable dispensaries afforded medical relief to 148,211 in-door and out-door