5
At Waitagwadi, near Khakedas Muth, there are 18 pits, and at the necessaries
outside the Delhi Gate, near the Málegaon Road, there are, at one place 35, and
at the other 20 pits.
21. The nightsoil is collected in the town by 70 municipal halalcores, who
mix ashes or earth with it, and carry it in covered baskets, and deposit it in
a closed iron cart, if there is one near at hand; if not, it is thrown into a wooden
box placed during the morning in the public streets, from which the cartmen re
-move it, and convey it to a place about half a mile to the south of the town, where
the municipality rents about 30 acres of ground, immediately to the east of the
Walki road. The nightsoil is then deposited in pits 24 feet long by 4 feet broad, and
4 ½ t o 5 f e e t d e e p . T h i s t r e n c h i s f i l l e d i n t o w i t h i n a b o u t o n e f o o t o f t h e s u r f a c e ,
when about 10 cart-loads of sweepings are thrown over it, and the earth dug out
of the pit is heaped on the top. About 30 cart-loads of nightsoil are brought
here every day, and generally one pit holds the day's supply. There are, on the
ground, 350 pits, which are left undisturbed for about a year and a-half or two
years. The contents are then taken out and sold to cultivators. Last year the
contents of 60 pits were sold for 400 rupees.
22. The scavengering establishment kept by the municipality consist of
—
7 bullock carts, each containing 24 cubic feet,
7 coolies,
24 street scavengers,
72 bhungies,
9 nightsoil carts,
8 coolies at the nightsoil pits,
2 bheesties,
4 inspectors,
and they are distributed in the following proportion to each division:—1 in
-spector, 2 muccadums, 6 scavengers, and about 18 bhungies.
23. There are, in the city, 120 recognized places of deposit for household
refuse. These are spaces enclosed by stone walls, and are situated in any conve
- n i e n t c o r n e r . T h e
c u t c h r a
f r o m t h e m i s r e m o v e d b y a c o n t r a c t o r t w i c e a d a y , a n d
is sold by the municipality to the potters on the outskirts of the town; but in the
Maliwara section I was surprised to find that the inhabitants, who are nearly all
Kunbis, are allowed to accumulate their household refuse, for six months at a
time, in mud enclosures outside their houses, and adjoining the public street.
24. There are about 1,000 head of milch-cattle in the town, which are
housed in about 80 yards, containing on an average about 12 beasts in each. The
stables are necessarily dirty, and the ground is saturated with the urine of these
animals, the smell arising from it being very obnoxious. The same remark
applies to the tattoo stables.
25. The offensive trades carried on inside the walls are as under:—
Indigo-dyeing places, 30 in numher, which are for the most part located in
the north-western division, near the Topekhana and Delhi Gates. In each of these
karkhanas there are, on an average, 20 kundies or vats, from which the most
fetid odour emanates. There are about 50 potters, who chiefly reside in the west
of the town, near the Nalegaon Gate. They are only allowed to work the mud
into the desired shapes inside the city. The pots are afterwards burnt outside
the walls near the river, on the north-west of the Nalegaon Gate. There are,
besides, several dyers in cusumba (carthamus tinctorius), distributed in all parts
of the town.
26. Outside there are about 25 lime-kilns, which are situated about ½ mile
on the north-west of the city, and on the north-east about 1¼ mile from the
walls. About 60 brick-kilns are worked on the north-west, south-west, and
B 2 2 1 — 2
d