The Great Bengal Famine of 1770 (Bengali: ৭৬-এর মন্বন্তর, Chhiattōrer monnōntór; lit The Famine of '76) was a famine between 1769 and 1773 (1176 to 1180 in the Bengali calendar) that affected the lower Gangetic plain of India. The famine is estimated to have caused the deaths of 10 million people. The famine is usually attributed to the rule of the British East India Company. Nobel prize winning Indian economist Amartya Sen describes it as a man-made famine, noting that no previous famine had occurred in India that century. The Company had conquered the area just six years previously from the Mughal Empire in the Battle of Buxar. It destroyed large areas of food crops to make way for the growing of indigo plants for dye and opium poppies for the production of psychoactive drugs. It increas