Canning, South 24 Parganas

Canning is headquarters of Canning subdivision and a town with a police station in South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Headquarters of two CD BlocksCanning I and Canning II of the subdivision are located in this town. Carrying the memory of an abandoned port, the town is dependent to some extent on the changing fortunes of the Matla River. It is a major centre for the supply of fish to Kolkata.EtymologyThe place is named after Lord Canning. He was Governor General of India from 1856 to 1858, and Governor General and Viceroy from 1858 to 1862.HistoryH. E. A. Cotton writes, "The year 1864… It witnessed also the speculative mania over an unlucky scheme for the reclamation of the Sunderbands, of which nothing remains but the deserted wharves of Port Canning, but which resulted in ruin to many". The idea of developing a major port at Canning faded with the choking of the Matla river as a result of inadequate headwater supply.Lord Canning wanted to build a port that would be an alternative to Kolkata and a rival to Singapore. What no one heeded were the warnings of a lowly shipping inspector Henry Piddington, who had lived in the Caribbean and knew all about hurricanes and storms. He wanted the mangroves 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. They went on to build a grand Canning with a strand, hotels and homes, but in 1867, the Matla river surged its fury on the new port-town, reducing it to a "bleached skeleton". Two different building was made for the purpose of administration namely 'Golkuthi' and 'Hotelkuthi'. The first one was demolished completely and the 'Hotelkuthi' is still standing in a ruined form near Helicopter More, Canning town.