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Cantonment

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Overview

A cantonment (, , or UK: ) is a type of military base. In South Asia, a cantonment refers to a permanent military station (a term from the British Raj). In United States military parlance, a cantonment is a permanent residential section within a military installation. The word cantonment, derived from the French word canton, meaning corner or district, refers to a temporary military or winter encampment. For example, at the start of the Waterloo campaign in 1815, while the Duke of Wellington's headquarters were in Brussels, most of his Anglo–allied army of 93,000 soldiers were cantoned, or stationed, to the south of Brussels.

Facts

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Source

WBP almanac

External sources

Wikivoyage Wikipedia

Media

From Wikipedia1,489 words

WBP editorial2

Living in a military‑styled neighbourhood

Cantonment in the Chittagong region is characterised by its orderly streets, wide avenues and a surprising amount of green space for a Bangladeshi urban area. The layout, inherited from its colonial-era military planning, makes walking or cycling a pleasant way to explore the neighbourhood, with clear signage and tree‑lined boulevards. Visitors will notice that many shops cater to expatriates and defence personnel, offering a quieter retail experience compared with the bustling city centre. This makes Cantonment a useful base for business travellers who need reliable infrastructure—steady electricity, secure parking and a reliable water supply—while still being within easy reach of Chittagong’s port facilities.

Beyond the barracks: local culture in small pockets

While the name evokes a strict military ambience, the surrounding villages inject a lively, everyday Bangladeshi rhythm. Small roadside tea stalls serve chai with a splash of condensed milk, offering a chance to chat with commuters heading to the railway line. On weekends, the adjacent markets buzz with vendors selling fresh hilsa, hand‑woven textiles and seasonal fruit, providing a sensory contrast to the regimented streets of the cantonment itself. For a nuanced view of the area, stray off the main thoroughfare onto side alleys where you’ll find modest mosques and community centres that host seasonal programmes, from classical music recitals to cricket matches.

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List of permanent cantonments

[edit] Afghanistan[edit] The former Sherpur Cantonment in Kabul, Afghanistan, which was the site of the Siege of the Sherpur Cantonment (1879) in the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1880), is now maintained as a British Army cemetery. Bangladesh[edit] In Bangladesh, cantonments are residential quarters for many military personnel as well as headquarters for different army units. A wide variety of military training is provided in Bangladesh cantonments: Alikadam Cantonment, Bandarban Bandarban Cantonment, Bandarban Chittagong Cantonment, Chittagong Comilla Cantonment, Comilla Dhaka Cantonment, Dhaka Dighinala Cantonment, Khagrachari Mithamain Cantonment, Kishoreganj Guimara Cantonment, Chittagong Halishahar Cantonment, Chittagong Jahanabad Cantonment, Khulna Jahangirabad Cantonment, Bogra Jalalabad Cantonment, Sylhet Jamuna Cantonment, Tangail Jessore Cantonment, Jessore Kaptai Cantonment, Kaptai Khagrachari Cantonment, Khagrachari Kholahati Cantonment, Dinajpur Lalmonirhat Cantonment, Lalmonirhat Barisal Cantonment, Barisal Majhira Cantonment, Bogra Mirpur Cantonment, Dhaka Mymensingh Cantonment, Mymensingh Padma Cantonment, Shariatpur Postogola Cantonment, Dhaka Qadirabad Cantonment, Natore Rajendrapur Cantonment, Gazipur Rajshahi Cantonment, Rajshahi Ramu Cantonment, Cox's Bazar Rangamati Cantonment, Rangamati Rangpur Cantonment, Rangpur Saidpur Cantonment, Nilphamari Savar Cantonment, Dhaka Shahid Salahuddin Cantonment, Ghatail Sylhet Cantonment, Sylhet India[edit] Several cities in the Indian subcontinent, including Ahmedabad, Ambala, Bellary, Belgaum, Bangalore, Danapur, Jabalpur, Kanpur, Bathinda, Delhi, Nilgiris, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Meerut, Ramgarh, Secunderabad, and Trichy, contained large cantonments of the former British Indian Army, with Meerut and Ramgarh being two of the most important cantonments in Northern India, second only to the headquarters at Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan). Meerut was established in 1803, and for 150 years was the largest cantonment in the region. Although cantonments in India were considered to be semi-permanent in the 18th and 19th centuries, by the turn of the 20th century, they had transitioned to being permanent garrisons. They were further entrenched as such, via the military reforms of Lord Kitchener in 1903, and the Cantonments Act of 1924. At India's Independence in 1947, India had 56 cantonments. After this India added 6 cantonments the last being Ajmer Cantonment in 1962, taking the total number to 62. They covered an area of 161,000 acres (650 km2). As of 2019, there were sixty-one "notified cantonments" in India, occupying an area of 157,000 acres (640 km2): twenty-five in Central Command, nineteen in Southern Command, thirteen in Western Command, four in Eastern Command, and one in Northern Command. On 24 July 2024, a press release notified that, in order to move on from older Colonial-era concepts, Ministry of Defence has decided to give up responsibility to consider to excise civil areas of certain Cantonments and merge them with neighbouring State municipalities. As of then, there were 58 Cantonments of which 10 were to be handed over in the first phase. The administration of civil areas was to be handed over from Cantonment Boards to the neighbouring Municipalities while the military region was to remain with the Armed Forces. On 27 April 2024, KhasYol had become the first cantonment board to be "de-notified". On 2 September 2024, it was reported that paperwork are being completed to handover civilian areas of Cantonments from the Indian Army. The Cantonments include Dehradun, Deolali, Nasirabad, Babina, Ajmer, Ramgarh, Mathura, Shahjahanpur, Clement Town and Fatehgarh. The report sain, "Indian Army's Central Command, South Western Command and Southern Command are in the process of completing the hand over exercise in coordination with Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh governments." Major cantonments and garrisons include the following: Notified cantonments[edit] Central Command Agra Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh Almora Cantonment, Uttarakhand Ayodhya Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh Bareilly Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh Chakrata Cantonment, Uttarakhand Clement Town Cantonment, Uttarakhand (To be denotified) Danapur Cantonment, Bihar Dehradun Cantonment, Uttarakhand (To be denotified) Fatehgarh Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh (To be denotified) Gopalpur Cantonment, Odisha Jabalpur Cantonment, Madhya Pradesh Kanpur Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh Landour Cantonment, Uttarakhand Lansdowne Cantonment, Uttarakhand Lucknow Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh Mathura Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh (To be denotified) Meerut Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh Mhow Cantonment, Madhya Pradesh Nainital Cantonment, Uttarakhand Pachmarhi Cantonment, Madhya Pradesh Prayagraj Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh Ramgarh Cantonment, Jharkhand (To be denotified) Ranikhet Cantonment, Uttarakhand Roorkee Cantonment, Uttarakhand Shahajahanpur Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh (To be denotified) Varanasi Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh Southern Command Ahmedabad Cantonment, Gujarat Ahmednagar Cantonment, Maharashtra Ajmer Cantonment, Rajasthan (To be denotified) Aurangabad Cantonment, Maharashtra Babina Cantonment, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh (To be denotified) Belgaum Cantonment, Karnataka Bellary Cantonment, Karnataka (Inactive, De-notified) Dehu Road Cantonment, Maharashtra Deolali Cantonment, Maharashtra (To be denotified) Jhansi Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh Kamptee Cantonment, Maharashtra Kannur Cantonment, Kerala Kirkee Cantonment, Maharashtra Morar Cantonment, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh Nasirabad Cantonment, Rajasthan (To be denotified) Pune Cantonment, Maharashtra Sagar Cantonment, Madhya Pradesh Secunderabad Cantonment, Telangana St. Thomas Mount Cantonment, Chennai, Tamil Nadu Wellington Cantonment, Tamil Nadu Western Command Ambala Cantonment, Haryana Amritsar Cantonment, Punjab Bakloh Cantonment, Chamba District, Himachal Pradesh Dagshai Cantonment, Himachal Pradesh Dalhousie Cantonment, Himachal Pradesh Delhi Cantonment, Delhi Ferozepur Cantonment, Punjab Jalandhar Cantonment, Punjab Jammu Cantonment, Jammu and Kashmir Jutogh Cantonment, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh Kasauli Cantonment, Himachal Pradesh Subathu Cantonment, Shimla Hills, Himachal Pradesh KhasYol Cantonment, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh (de-notified on 2023) Eastern Command Barrackpore, West Bengal Dum Dum Cantonment, West Bengal (Inactive, De-notified) Jalapahar, Darjeeling, West Bengal Lebong, Darjeeling, West Bengal Shillong Cantonment, Meghalaya Northern Command Badamibagh Cantonment, Jammu and Kashmir Unlisted military cantonments[edit] This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Abohar Cantonment (Abohar, Punjab) Akhnoor Cantonment (Akhnoor, Jammu and Kashmir) Baddowal Cantonment (Ludhiana, Punjab) Bangalore Cantonment (Bangalore, Karnataka) Bikaner Cantonment (Bikaner, Rajasthan) Bharatpur Cantonment (Rajasthan) Bhatinda Cantonment (Bhatinda, Punjab) Binnaguri Cantonment (West Bengal) Bhuj Cantonment (Bhuj, Gujarat) Bhopal Cantonment (Madhya Pradesh) Bhubaneswar cantonment (Bhubaneswar, Odisha) Beas Military Station (Punjab) Chandimandir Cantonment (Chandigarh) Dipatoli Cantonment (Ranchi, Jharkhand) Faridkot Cantonment (Faridkot, Punjab) Fazilka Cantonment (Fazilka, Punjab) Gandhinagar Cantonment (Gandhinagar, Gujarat) Gopalpur Cantonment (Brahmapur, Orissa) Hisar Cantonment (Hisar, Haryana) Itarana Cantonment (Alwar, Rajasthan) Jaipur Cantonment (Jaipur, Rajasthan) Jaisalmer Cantonment (Jaisalmer, Rajasthan) Jodhpur Cantonment (Rajasthan) Joshimath Cantonment (Joshimath, Uttarakhand) Kapurthala Cantonment (Kapurthala, Punjab) Khasa Cantonment (Amritsar, Punjab) Kollam Cantonment (Kollam, India) Ludhiana Cantonment (Punjab) Mamun Cantonment (Pathankot, Punjab) Missamari Cantonment (Missamari, Assam) Nagrota Cantonment (Nagrota, Jammu & Kashmir) Narengi Cantonment (Guwahati, Assam) Pathankot Cantonment (Pathankot, Punjab) Patiala Cantonment (Punjab) Pithoragarh Cantonment (Pithoragarh , Uttarakhand) Shahjahanpur Cantonment (Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh) Solmara Cantonment (Tezpur, Assam) Sri Ganganagar Cantonment (Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan) Suratgarh Cantonment (Suratgarh, Rajasthan) Thiruvananthapuram Cantonment (Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala) Tibri Cantonment (Gurdaspur, Punjab) Udhampur Cantonment (Udhampur, Jammu & Kashmir) Udaipur Cantonment (Rajasthan) Vadodra Cantonment (Vadodra, Gujarat) Varanasi Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh, Central Command Siliguri Cantonment(West Bengal) Shillong Cantonment(Meghalaya) Ghana[edit] Cantonments, Accra Nigeria[edit] Cantonments in Nigeria refer to permanent military installations which house active personnel and their families. Cantonments in Nigeria include: Airforce Cantonment, Ikeja, Lagos Armed forces resettlement centre, Oshodi, Lagos Army Ordnance Cantonment, (also known as Abalti Barracks), Yaba, Lagos Arn Cantonment, Yaba, Lagos Badagry Cantonment, Badagry, Lagos Dodan Cantonment, Ikoyi, Lagos Ikeja Cantonment, Ikeja, Lagos Marda Cantonment, Yaba, Lagos Navy Town, Ojo, Lagos Ojo Cantonment (also known as Palm Barracks), Ojo, Lagos, Bonny Camp, Victoria Island Jaji military cantonment, kaduna, Dalet cantonment, kaduna, Mogadishu cantonment, Abiyssinia cantonment, .Burma cantonment, Adshanti cantonment, Nigerian Defence Academy, Afaka, Kaduna Pakistan[edit] Main article: Cantonment (Pakistan) Abbottabad Cantonment Attock Cantonment Allama Iqbal Cantonment Bannu Cantonment Bhawalpur Cantonment Chaklala Cantonment Clifton Cantonment, Karachi Dera Ismail Khan Cantonment Faisal Cantonment, Karachi Faisalabad Cantonment Gujranwala Cantonment Hyderabad Cantonment Jhelum Cantonment Kamra Cantonment Karachi Cantonment Kharian Cantonment Khuzdar Cantonment Korangi Creek Cantonment, Karachi Lahore Cantonment Walton Cantonment: Created out of the southern parts of the original Lahore Cantt., Walton, Lahore Loralai Cantonment Malir Cantonment, Karachi Mangla Cantonment Manora Cantonment, Karachi Mardan Cantonment Multan Cantonment Murree Cantonment Nowshera Cantonment Okara Cantonment Ormara Cantonment Pano Aqil Cantonment Peshawar Cantonment Quetta Cantonment Rawalpindi Cantonment Sanjwal Cantonment Sargodha Cantonment Shorkot Cantonment (PAF Rafiqui) Sialkot Cantonment Taxila Cantonment Wah Cantonment Zhob Cantonment Singapore[edit] In Singapore, the term is used to denote a police cantonment. South Africa[edit] Thaba Tshwane Sri Lanka[edit] Panagoda Cantonment United States[edit] The United States military commonly uses the term "cantonment" to describe the permanent facilities at U.S. Army training bases as opposed to the field training areas. Cantonment areas often include housing (such as barracks and maid-service quarters), dining facilities, training classrooms, exchanges, and paved air fields.