In 1824, 1830, and 1831, Madras town suffered from deartlur, approaching to famine. In 1766 the British had acquired possession of the delta of the Kistna or Krishna river, and from that time for eighty years famines repeatedly occurred, destroying the people. That which occurred in Guntur in 1833 WAS described by Captain Best. In this famine 150,000 human beings died of starva tion, also 74,000 bullocks, 159,000 milk cattle, and 300,000 sheep and goats. The loss of revenue occasioned to Government during the 15 follow ing years exceeded two and a half millions sterling (Mad. Lit. Trans. 184-4, No. 30, p. 186; As. Journ., new series, vol. xiii.). The famine of 1833 ex tended southwards to Madras, where its severity was intensified from January to September 1833 by the arrival of thousands, and at one time 59,817 starving people were fed.
1834. In Cutch, Ahmadabad, caused by locusts. 1835. In Broach, caused by excessive rain.
In 1838 a famine occurred in the N.W. Pro vinces. In 1837 the autumn harvest was scant, owing to insufficient rainfall, and the spring harvest wholly failed from want of rain, and many emigrated, and the cattle perished. Go vernment alone gave in cash Rs. 44,000, but remitted and abandoned revenue to 17 lakhs.
In the famine year of 1837-38, the gross value of the crops saved by the waters of the Jumna canal was estimated at £1,462,800, of which about one-tenth was paid t,o Government as land and water rent, while the remainder supported the inhabitants of nearly 500 villages.
Scarcity and distress in Surat and other Bom bay districts, caused by failure of rains.
1853-54. Great scarcity in Bellary district, caused by failure of 1853 rains.
1860-61. In 1859-60 the Dehli territory suffered from want of rain ; the 1860 rains completely failed be tween the Jumna and the Sutlej, from Peshawur to Cawnpur, a range of 800 miles, and an area of 25,000 square miles. Great Britain subsclibed £108,090.
1861-62. Scarcity in Cutch and other Bombay districts from failure of 1861 rains, and short fall in early part of 1862.
1866. Awful famine occurred in Orissa from drought, and the lower parts of Bengal and Behar also suffered.
The rains of 1865 were scanty throughout the lower provinces of Bengal and on part of the Madras coast, and in Orissa they ceased on the 14th September. In Orissa the total fall was much below the average, and prices rose to famine rates, and in Balasore and Midnapur grain robberies became frequent. Orissa, 200 miles long, has an area of 8518 square miles, and before the famine its population was estimated at 3,015,826, of whom 814,469 perished and 115,028 emigrated. The deaths were 27 per cent. Of
these victims a very large proportion perished in the north-eastern districts of the province. In the Madras division of the country the mortality was lessened by successful measures ; and it is estimated, therefore, with only too nauch proba bility, that in some parts of the Bengal division three-fourths of the entire population had been swept away. During the scarcity and famine in Orissa, in Nuddea, and Midnapur, the starving people fled to Calcutta, where not fewer than 20,000 people were at one time fed daily. The two earlier famines of 1789 and 1800 began in the north of the Ganjarn district, and increased in intensity towards the south ; whilst that of 1836, as in 1866, was felt with greatest severity in Orissa and parts of the district adjacent to Bengal. Cuttack, Puri, and Balasore were the three districts of Orissa,—omitting the hill tracts—in which the famine raged with greatest intensity, and con tinued longest Mohurbhunj is a very large terri tory, covering an area of upwards of 400Q square miles, and the greater part of this tract was in cluded in the area of most severe suffering. In Chutia Nagpur, in which are the districts of Man bhum and Singbhum, the mortality for the famine of 1866 fell on the population about the same as in Orissa.
In 1868 a severe drought prevailed over all Rajputana, the Central Provinces, the N.W. Pro vinces, including Meerut and Dehli. The harvest of 1867 was scant, and that of 1868 failed. Raj puta,na, with its area of desert and its scanty water supply, was most afflicted. It is usual in tirnes of scarcity for the population of the more arid districts to migrate to the more fertile states, but on this occasion all were alike parched by the drought, which was the most calamitous on record. Thousands of the famine-stricken poured into British territory in search of food, greatly aggravating the burden already felt there. In the Central Provinces, the drought, though less severe, was general. The northern parts of the N.W. Provinces, and those bordering on Rajputana, suffered most ; in the Panjab, those south of the Sutlej. The famine of 1868, in Rajputana, in severity surpassed that of 1813, which was the most calamitous in Rajpritana of which they had record. It was most severely felt in Marwar, the northern portion of which was deserted.