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Bengal Famine

Type Event Region South Asia Time 1596–1597

Around 1596, successive crop failures, river shifts, and floods in Bengal caused severe food shortages and famine;…

Timeline

  1. 1596Bengal Delta agricultural region · BengalThe Bengal plain had poor rice harvests for two consecutive years, floods from the lower Ganges and Brahmaputra inundated farmland, grain reserves were exhausted, grain prices in towns such as Dhaka and Rajshahi soared, and refugees fled the countryside.
  2. 1596–1597Dhaka · BengalThe governor of the Bengal Subah was ordered to open granaries and suspend land tax collection, but muddy roads and officials embezzling relief weakened its effect. The famine caused loss of labor and abandoned land, only gradually easing after harvests recovered in 1597.

Sources