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During the Second World War there were three major rice crops in Bengal: aman, harvested in winter; aus, harvested in autumn, and boro harvested in spring. The most important of the three was the winter crop, which accounted for around 70% of the total rice production in the state, but a cyclone during the winter of 1942 affected much of this crop in the southern, coastal regions. Subsequent disease after excessive rains and flooding destroyed even more.
In 1943 [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] between 1.5 million and 4 million people are estimated to have starved in the Indian state of Bengal. Initial investigations suggested that this was the direct result of a food shortage, but closer analysis later suggested that the causes of the Great Bengal Famine were largely human. There was actually more food available in 1943 than there had been in 1941 [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], a year in which there had been no famine, and market speculation on rocketing rice prices has been identified as the main contributing factor.
However, later analysis of the statistics showed that the overall availability of rice was only down 5% on the previous year, and was in fact 13% higher than it had been in 1941. Furthermore, increased wheat exports should have more than compensated for the diminished rice crop and as an aggregate figure there was no real shortage of food in Bengal that year. The price of rice had been forced up by the rumour of shortage rather than an actual crop failure; market speculators had precipitated the famine.
The Japanese occupation of Burma triggered a spike in rice prices as speculators began to buy up the Bengal crop; the cost of rice nearly trebled in the six months following December 1942. At the same time, many of those who had been left destitute by the southern storm began to descend on the state capital in Calcutta. There was a widespread panic and the assumption that there was a shortage of rice, which only served to force the price up further.
Sen, A (1981) Poverty and Famine: An essay on entitlement and deprivation.
The people who died during the Great Bengal Famine died because they could not buy the food that was present; both because they could not afford it and because it was withheld by speculators. While the southern crop failure was caused by meteorological conditions the previous year it was far from enough to cause a famine on its own. Both human and climatological factors combined and over 1.5 million people died as a result [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], despite the fact that there was no real state-wide food shortage.
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References:
Market Speculation and Rocketing Rice Prices
At around the same time, the Japanese were occupying Burma and cut off rice imports which accounted for around 20% of the total rice consumption in the state. These two factors combined meant that the rice production in 1943 was down on the previous year and precipitated the Great Bengal Famine.
Natural Causes of the Great Bengal Famine