Indian Famine of 1896–1897 - Cattle in The Deccan

Cattle in The Deccan

Farming in the dry Deccan region of the Bombay Presidency required more farm animals—typically bullocks to pull the heavier ploughs—than were needed in other, wetter, regions of India; often, up to six bullocks were needed for ploughing. For most of the first half of the 19th-century, farmers in the Deccan did not own enough bullocks to farm effectively. Consequently, many plots were ploughed only once every three or four years.

In the second half of the 19th-century, cattle numbers per farmer did increase, however, the cattle remained vulnerable to famines. When the crops failed, people were driven to change their diets and eat seeds and fodder. Consequently, many farm animals, especially bullocks, slowly starved. The famine of 1896–97 proved particularly devastating for bullocks; in some areas of the Bombay Presidency, their numbers had not recovered some 30 years later.