Are lightning strikes India’s biggest natural disaster?
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- A tragedy: Lightning strikes spread across 31 districts of two states killed 107 people on Thursday – 83 in Bihar and 24 in UP – amid warnings from meteorologists that more thunderstorms are on the radar over the next 72 hours. Both states announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to families of the deceased.
- The killer: Lightning strikes kill hundreds every year. In fact, among deaths due to exposure to severe weather, lightning strikes claimed almost 40% of lives between 2001 and 2014. Over 2,000 people have died in lightning strikes every year since 2005. In 2018, out of the 6,891 accidental deaths attributable to forces of nature, 2,357 or over 34% were due to lightning. That’s more than six deaths a day. That was close to those killed in floods (500), landslide (404), cold (757) and heat (890) combined. That probably makes lightning India’s biggest natural calamity.
- The policy: However, the natural disaster that kills the most isn’t recognised by India’s official disaster relief policy as one, which means victims, or their kin, are not entitled to financial compensation from the national calamity relief fund. However, some state governments have classified lightning as a disaster in order to pay compensation to victims and their families. That was after the Centre directed the state governments to allocate 10% of their disaster relief funds towards state-specific disasters.
- The warning: According to a 2014 University of Berkeley study, lightning strikes are expected to increase by 12% for every degree Celsius of warming, with a 50% rise in lightning expected by the end of the century.
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