Five Most Deadly Famines

Introduction

Occurrence of natural disasters are quiet common which can cause the collateral damage , loss of lives, property, and massive damage to so many other things. These natural disasters are because of act of GOD and beyond the limit and power of human beings. These natural disasters could be in any form like earthquakes, flooding, famine, hurricane etc. When scarcity of food occurs at massive level then it is called famine. There are so many root causes because of which it stems such as less yield of crop, massive increase in population, polices of government. This intern causes malnutrition problem, starvation, epidemic diseases etc. Every continent of the world experiences famine but is very common in those areas where are large deserts like Africa where world’s largest Sahara desert is present.

Famine in 20th Century

20th century has experienced deadliest famine across the world in which more than 70 million people died and 30 million were those who experienced the famine of China in 1958-1961. There are so many other worth mentioning famine are also there like 1942-1945 Bengal faced a famine, china famine 1928 and also in 1942 and also in Russia in 1932-1933 are cases in point.

Other most greatest famine of 20th century include famine faced in 1960 named as Biafran famine, 1970 famine in Cambodia remembered as Khmer Rouge, 1990 experienced famine in Korea and 1984-85 Ethiopia were also in clutches of famine.

Famine which occurred on 23 October 1984 in Ethiopia was the greatest tragedy in human history for which different charity shows were conducted by the stars in different cities like London, Philadelphia to raise the funds. In that famine 900,000 people died in record time period which has never ever happened in any other famine.

Five Most Deadly Famines

It is known fact that famine are very dangerous and cause deaths of millions of people but in history of famines some of them are also deadly which crossed all the limits. Below is list of those most deadly famines with brief summary. It has always remained difficult task to quote the exact number of death recorded in those famines but best available information is provided.1. China 1958-62This famine occurred because of the policies of Mao Zedong like Great Leap Forward for transforming its nation towards industrialization on the Soviet model of nationalizing farms .Because of which farmers have to give major part of their crops to the government.  Mao was quoted as saying in Shanghai in 1959: “When there is not enough to eat people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.” Corrupt officials were in habit of not giving the due share of the public to them at most places complete harvest used to be horded. All of these activities caused famine and still all the hues and cries of public fell on the deaf ears of the leader of and led to death of almost 10 to 30 million people in that famine which lasted from 1958 to 1961.2. Soviet Union 1921-22Food shortages were a critical source of social unrest and political instability during the first year of Soviet power. Through the course of the civil war, efforts by the Soviet government to acquire sufficient foodstuffs to support the Red Army and the urban population assumed massive proportions. Food detachments sent out from the cities were a regular feature of the "food dictatorship" that was imposed on the peasantry. Even after the civil war wound down, requisitioning of grain and other food supplies provoked violent confrontations between Soviet authorities and peasant producers. One consequence of these encounters was the reduction of sown area which left little margin for crop failures. The situation was "ripe" for a devastating famine. There was massive crop failure which stem from drought but government of Vladimir Lenin did not realized the severity of situation which let nine million people of country die because of this famine.3. Soviet Union (Ukraine) 1932-34

Industrialization programe of Josef Stalin caused massive famine in the country because of his policy of seizing the grain for export. To buy industrial equipment currency was need of the hour and used grain export in turn of cash. Continuous reports of famine from Ukrainian citizens fall on his deaf ears and those who used to report famine also faced his wrath. This famine caused seven to Eight million people die and it happened in an area once called as the breadbasket of Europe. In Moscow, Stalin responded to their unyielding defiance by dictating a policy that would deliberately cause mass starvation and result in the deaths of millions. By mid 1932, nearly 75 percent of the farms in the Ukraine had been forcibly collectivized. On Stalin's orders, mandatory quotas of foodstuffs to be shipped out to the Soviet Union were drastically increased in August, October and again in January 1933, until there was simply no food remaining to feed the people of the Ukraine.

4. North-west China 1927Drought was root cause of famine but negligence of the warlords and taxes imposition worsen the situation and lead six million to hug the death.5. China (Henan) 1943When Japan invaded China then Chinese government seized the grains to feed their troops which let five million people to die.