Grainmerchants

There had been a number of droughts and near-famines in the region in the first third of the nineteenth century.They years of scarcity included: 1803–1804, 1813–14, 1819, 1925–26, 1827–28, and 1832–33.Especially in the 1830s, a number of factors—which included a decade long economic depression, ecological changes in the region, and likely E Niño events—conspired to create a succession of scarcities, of which the Agra famine of 1837–38 was the last
The 1837 summer monsoon rains failed almost entirely in the region of the Doab lying between Delhi and Allahabad as well in the trans-Jumna districts.During August and September 1837, reports of both severe drought and the failure of the kharif(or autumn) harvest rushed in from different parts of the region. By the time the Governor-General of India, Lord Auckland, assumed charge of the administration of the North-Western Provinces on January 1, 1838, the winter monsoon rains had failed as well, and no rabi (or spring) harvest was expected.

famine was, consequently, declared and Auckland commenced a tour of the famine-afflicted regions. In his report to the Court of Directors of the East India Company dated 13 February 1838, Auckland wrote not only about human distress, but also about the impact of the famine on livestock
By the end of 1838, approximately 800,000 people had died of starvation, as had an even larger number of livestock. The famine came to be known in folk memory as chauranvee, (Hindi, literally, "of ninety four,") for the year 1894 in the Samvat calendar corresponding to the year 1838 CE.