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Sir Proby Thomas Cautley, KCB (3 January 1802 – 25 January 1871), English engineer and palaeontologist, born in Stratford St Mary, Suffolk, [1] is best known for conceiving and supervising the construction of the Ganges canal during East India Company rule in India.
Proby Cautley was the sole projector and executive director of one of the largest irrigation canals ever built in the world, the Ganges Canal, the first new cut made by the British in India.
A MEMOIR OF COLONEL SIR PROBY CAUTLEY, F.R.S., I802-1871, ENGINEER AND PALAEONTOLOGIST By JOYCE BROWN Department of Civil Engineering, Imperial College University of London [Plates 8 and 9] ROBY CAUTLEY was the sole projector and executive director of one of the largest irrigation canals ever built in the world, the Ganges Canal,
This article offers an account of the Ganga Canal, constructed in mid-nineteenth century colonial India, under British engineer Proby Cautley, by drawing water from the river Ganga. The paper revisits his motivations and challenges and the scope of his plan to make two arguments.
- Environment and History
- 22
- Ganges Canal
- Dehradun Canal Network
- Fossil Work
- Writings
- Awards and Honours
- Death
- Works
- References
In 1840 Cautley reported on the proposed Ganges canal, for the irrigation of the country between the rivers Ganges, Hindan and Yamuna (then called the Jumna), which was his most important work. Cautley began working towards his dream of building a Ganges canal, and spent six months walking and riding through the area taking each measurement himself...
While the first canal in Dehradun was laid in the 17th century, Cautley significantly expanded the network in the 1850s. Five canals were laid in the city that irrigated the surrounding villages and produced a cooler microclimate. Since 2000, when the city became the state capital, most of the heritage canal network has been covered or demolished t...
Cautley was actively involved in Dr Hugh Falconer's fossil expeditions in the Siwalik Hills. He presented a large collection of mammalian fossils, including hippopotamus and crocodile fossils indicating that the area had once been a swampland. Other animal remains that he found here included the sabre-toothed tiger, Elephis ganesa (an elephant with...
Cautley's writings indicated his large and varied interests. He wrote on a submerged city, twenty feet underground, in the Doab: on the coal and lignite in the Himalayas; on gold washings in the Siwaliks, between the Sutlej and the Yamuna; on a new species of snake; on the mastodonsof the Siwaliks and on the manufacture of tar. In 1860 he published...
In 1837, he received Wollaston medal of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. The plant genus Cautleyais named in his honour. A student hostel (Cautley Bhawan) in Indian Institute of Technology Roorkeeis named after him.
After the Ganges canal was opened in 1854 he went back to England, where he was made KCB, and from 1858 to 1868 he occupied a seat on the Council of India. He died at Sydenham, near London, on 25 January 1871.
Cautley, Proby T. (1860). Report on the Ganges Canal Works: from their commencement until the opening of the Canal in 1854. London: Smith, Elder.(2 vols.)Cautley, Proby Thomas (1864). Ganges canal: a disquisition on the heads of the Ganges of Jumna canals, North-western Provinces. London. https://archive.org/stream/gangescanaladis01cautgoog#page/n7/...Brown, Joyce (1980). "A Memoir of Colonel Sir Proby Cautley, F.R.S., 1802–1871, Engineer and Palaeontologist". pp. 185–225. Digital object identifier:10.1098/rsnr.1980.0008. JSTOR 531808.Stone, Ian (2002). "Canal Irrigation in British India: Perspectives on Technological Change in a Peasant Economy (Cambridge South Asian Studies)". Cambridge and London: Cambridge University Press....Vibart, H.M. (1894). Addiscombe: its heroes and men of note. Westminster: Archibald Constable. pp. 333–6. OL23336661M.Sir Proby Thomas Cautley, KCB, English engineer and palaeontologist, born in Stratford St Mary, Suffolk, is best known for conceiving and supervising the construction of the Ganges canal...
Civil engineer and palaeontologist. FRS. Born Suffolk. Proby was his mother's maiden name. 1819 went to India as a commissioned second lieutenant. Apart from a few years his work there was mainly engineering in nature rather than military. While there he developed a strong interest in geology and, together with Hugh Falconer, made a large collection of fossils which they gave to the British ...
