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In the case of Narielwadi Village the large Municipal camp on the spot
into which the village turned out yearly was half burnt down in October last.
As this ground was paying heavy rent and the camp was unused, I recommended
it should be pulled down. At the same time these people were offered a good
sized camp and hospital to be built just across the road and within
10 yards o£ the village i£ they would promise to use it, and the plan was actually
drawn out. They are all Mahomedans and a queer tempered lot, and after
taking three weeks to talk it over, said they would not use it. About the end of
March plague broke out badly. The Kotwal then begged for a piece of ground
close to the village. I forwarded this application and suggested a piece of ground.
But after much correspondance no ground being available as they would not
come to Wari Bunder Camp they had to remain in their houses. The result was
that there were 38 cases and 38 deaths between 23 small houses and 6 huts.
Captain Moore was most successful in inducing the tenants of many
houses possessed of compounds to build huts for themselves and remain
outside their houses whilst the epidemic lasted. Here the means adopted
to induce optional evacuation were simply persuasive arguments and were
attended with the best results. The people escaped almost unscathed
though the epidemic was raging around them.
The same steps were taken in C Ward but to. a smaller extent.
Captain Boileau reports as follows with regard to F and G
Wards :—
This measure has, with the exception of Parel, been carried out wholesale
in my ward and with very good results. The numbers in the camp this year
were not so large as last year, but the numbers of the people from my own
district were just as many as in the year before. Most of the well-to-do people
left the district when plague broke out and went to live outside the confines of
the houses and three full trains used to go out and come in morning and evening.
Many people went to live in the fields the moment they found dead rats in their
houses, and amongst these there was very little plague. It is a pity that there
were no camps for the poorer class, such as I advocated early in the year. Had
I had any place to send them to I could have evacuated many chawls and saved
many lives. What I would like to do would be to build one or two large camps
in and about Parel where there is plenty of open ground and into which I
could send the inmates of chawls as they became infected. There would be no
opposition to this—rather the opposite—and the camps would always be crowded.
For the rest of the district people prefer their own huts, and I have no
difficulty in getting them to evacuate when their homes become infected. At
the present stage of our knowledge, I consider evacuation to be one of the most
important measures to be adopted for the prevention of plague, and the abolition
of this measure in its compulsory form has had bad results in the year under report.
I trust that next year we shall be allowed more discretionary powers in this
direction. There is a great deal of open ground in this district which if properly
utilized could be the means of saving many lives and those who have seen the
results of evacuation in this district are well aware of its enormous value.
All the ground to the north, east and west of Matunga, an old station, has never
been camped on. It is capable of accommodating, 40,000 people if properly laid out.
There would be difficulty for drainage and water which I think could be overcome
by proper arrangements and the site is near the railway.