Chronology of Events - The Ganga: Water Use in the Indian Subcontinent - page 225

Individual/Agency Month/Year Comments

Colebrook 1801 The Gorai and the Chandni were the only navigable

channels throughout the dry season, the Bhagirathi and
the Jalangi could not be relied upon for navigation (the
Chandni and the Churni may be the same river).

H. Piddington,
Member,
Hooghly
Commission,
1853-1854

1853 Most strenuous efforts should be made and every means

used and every experiment tried to ensure a copious
supply of water for as many months in the year as
possible at the heads and along the courses of the three
main feeders of the Hooghly

The Bengal
Chamber of
Commerce

1853 The most difficult and dangerous state of the navigation of

the Hooghly, which threatens at no distant period to
render access to the port of Calcutta altogether
impracticable for any vessels but those of smallest
tonnage, is not far off.

Major Long 1948 and

1954

The mouths of the Bhagirathi and the Jalangi remained
un-navigable.

Capt. Sherwill 1857 The Bhagirathi, the Mathabhanga and the Jalangi are not

navigable. The Gorai is becoming broader every year, its
fierce current is rapidly cutting its banks and in a few
years, it is likely to absorb the greater portion, if not all,
of the water from the Poddah (Padma).

Prestige Franklin 1861 Both the Bhagirathi and the Jalangi mouths are cut off

from the parent river, the Ganga for most part of the
year. The government is anxious to keep the
Mathabhanga mouth open so as to have a good water
communication between the Hooghly and the Ganga in
all seasons of the year.

Ferguson 1863 There was a good chance that the action of the

Brahmaputra would send the Ganga down the Gorai, the
upper Kumar (i.e. Mathabhanga) and the Chandra (east
of the Gorai).

H. Leonard
(Superintending
Engineer,
Public works
Dept.

1865 It is difficult to come to any other conclusion than that the

Hooghly must deteriorate, however slowly, considering
the agencies at work on the river.

G. Robertson 1872 The condition of the Hooghly has been gradually

deteriorating, day by day.

Vernon Harcourt 1896 The Hooghly is a fairly stable river, undergoing indeed

considerable fluctuations in depth at some places,
according to the seasons and the volume of freshets but
free from any general deterioration in its condition
between Calcutta and the sea. Unless some unexpected
change of the course of the Ganga should occur, so as to
deprive the Nadia rivers of their annual supply and
thereby materially reduce the discharge of the Hooghly,
or unless the occurrence of some seismic, or cyclonic
disturbance should alter the existing conditions
unfavourably, there is every prospect that provided the
two obstructions in the river can be removed and some
improvements effected in the estuary, the Hooghly will
provide in the future a considerably better waterway
between Calcutta and the sea than it has done in the past.