Orissa famine of 1866

Odisha famine of 1866
Na'Anka Durbhikshya
ନ'ଅଙ୍କ ଦୁର୍ଭିକ୍ଷ
A 1907 map of Odisha, now Odisha, shown as the southwestern region of Greater Bengal. Coastal Balasore district was one of the worst-hit areas in the Odisha famine of 1866.
CountryIndia
LocationOdisha
Coordinates20°23′54″N 84°24′09″E / 20.398464°N 84.402366°E / 20.398464; 84.402366
Period1866-1868
Total deaths4-5 million
CausesDrought
ReliefINR 9,500,000
Net food imports40,000 tons of Food grains
Effect on demographicsApproximately 33% of the population died
ConsequencesThe famine also served to awaken Indians about the effects of British Raj.
Preceded byGuntur famine of 1832
Succeeded byThe Great Indian famine of 1876

The Orissa famine of 1866 affected the east coast of India from Madras northwards, an area covering 180,000 miles and containing a population of 47,500,000;[1] the impact of the famine, however, was greatest in the region of Orissa, now Odisha, which at that time was quite isolated from the rest of India.[2] In Odisha, the total number who died as a result of the famine was at least a million, roughly one third of the population.[3][4]

  1. ^ "The Orissa famine of 1866", by Ganeswar Nayak (PDF)
  2. ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III 1907, p. 486
  3. ^ Mohanty, Bidyut (2022). A haunting tragedy : gender, caste and class in the 1866 famine of Orissa. Abingdon, Oxon. ISBN 978-1-000-50673-0. OCLC 1266644011.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ^ Patel, Dinyar (10 June 2016). "Viewpoint: How British let one million Indians die in famine". BBC News. Retrieved 10 June 2016.