Odisha govt to identify areas as lightning claims 400 lives a year
deaths due to lightning strikes emerging as the biggest natural killer, ahead of flood and heatwave, the Odisha government plans to identify areas and class of people highly vulnerable to the bolt from blue.
A meeting headed by Odisha revenue and disaster management minister Maheswar Mohanty on Tuesday decided to institute a study with the help of experts. He said that the state. over the past few years, witnessed a steep hike in casualties due to lighting strikes. An average of 400 people were killed annually while in the country, about 2,000 die due to the lightning strikes.
”While awareness among people is necessary to reduce the rate of casualty, we need to know the causes as well,” said Mohanty.
Over 3,500 people have been killed by lightning in the state in the past 13 years, a figure that outweighs deaths due to other natural disasters like heatwave and floods. Since the last fortnight, at least 45 persons, most of them farmers, daily wage labourers and people out in fields, died due to lightning strikes. Last week, eight students of Rasrasikapur UGME School in Athgarh block of Cuttack were injured when lighting struck their school building.
Special relief commissioner Bishnupada Sethi said that apart from studying postmortem reports, a detailed analysis will be done regarding the timing and place of deaths to chalk out a comprehensive strategy.
The high casualty rates started from 2003, with 200 people dying annually. In 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2016, the number crossed 300. An analysis by the disaster management department showed 70% of deaths occurred between May and August while Mayurbhanj topped the list of casualties.