Author's reply

The scientists said not much historical data is available on lightning strikes in the region, and hence, cannot say exactly how unprecedented this particular event was. Their organisation was roped in by the state government recently to monitor and predict lightning activity in the region. Before this, Andhra Pradesh did not have any mechanism for this purpose. They are also providing the data for operating the app that sends in the alerts. The scientists are not at fault as the government did not know about the increase in lightning strikes in the last 5-6 years as you have rightly pointed out.