Cawnpore (the present Kanpur) was an obscure hamlet until British set up an army camp in 1778. The subsequent development of Kanpur into an industrial city can be traced back to establishment of Garrison. Kanpur is the second largest city in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The city is bounded between two rivers namely Ganges in the north and Pandu in south. The average breadth of the city is about 9 km between two rivers and extreme length is about 27 km spread towards northwest and southeast.

The three events in succession that accelerated the pace of industrial development of Kanpur are:

• annexation of Oudgh dynasty by British in 1856;
• the first war of independence in 1857; and
• connecting the city with railway line in 1859.

1. separate municipality (one of the oldest in country) was established in the year 1861
2. electricity supply for the first time in 1906
3. first sewerage network in the year 1904
4. first piped water supply in the year 1889
5. first manual telephone exchange was opened in 1907 and operated by Kanpur telecom organisation
6. The Town Development Bill was approved during 1918
7. The Kanpur Urban Area Development Authority replaced it in 1945
8. City underwent rapid industrial development after post independence

The climate of Kanpur is tropical in nature. The city encounters seasonal variation of climate throughout the year with high temperature during summer, cold weather during winter and sufficient rain during monsoon. The hottest months are May and June with mercury levels touching 40 to 45^o C. Usually summers are dry. The temperature falls to 6.5 to 10^o C during December and January. Kanpur encounters lowest R.H during summer (35 to 70%), medium in winter (55 to 86 %) and maximum during monsoon period (60 to 93 5%). The annual rainfall in the range of 420 to 1300 mm per year with average being 821 mm per annum.

The population growth in Kanpur in 1941 was 7.17%, however it had fallen to 2.2% by 1991. The decadal population growth trends are shown table.

Decadal Population Growth in Kanpur

Year	Population in Millions	Annual Growth (%)
1901	0.202	-
1911	0.178	(-)1.26
1921	0.216	1.94
1931	0.234	1.19
1941	0.487	7.17
1951	0.705	3.77
1961	0.971	3.25
1971	1.275	2.76
1981	1.639	2.54
1991	2.037	2.20

A number of industrial establishments are located within the urban agglomeration. The main categories of these industries are textiles, heavy engineering and tanneries. There are about 75 large and medium scale industries apart from 4,000 (approx.) small scale units. Kanpur is an important centre for trade and commerce in Uttar Pradesh. Besides production, the city is a major distribution centre for finished leather products, textiles and fertilisers.

Kanpur is a transit point for many tourist attractions around the city. Notable tourist points within the city are Bithoor, Ganga Ghats and J.K Temple. Educational institutes of national repute such as Indian Institute of Technology, National Sugar Institute, Central Leather Research Institute, Chandra Sekhar Azad Agricutural University, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthathi Memorial Medical College, National Textile Institute, Harcourt Butlar Technological Institute and Indian Council of Agricultural Research Institute are situated in the city. Other important educational institutes are Kanpur University and Govt. Polytechnic.