Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
The victim was struck dead lightning in Uttar Pradesh, India, reaching 49 people in one week. Why can there be so many?
City of Associated press (AP) Seven people, mostly farmers, were killed by lightning in a village in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, according to police information on Thursday (7/28).
As a result, the death toll from lightning struck 49 people in the state this week alone.
During the incident, Tuesday (26/7). farmers took shelter under trees during the heavy monsoon rains. They died instantly. The rainy season in India lasts from June to September.
According to police officer Hem Raj Meena, the victims included four family members and cattle herders near the town of Kaushambi.
This high death toll has prompted the government to issue new guidelines on how to protect yourself during thunderstorms.
“More people die from lightning than from rain-related incidents, even though these are times when people [biasanya] dead as a result of flooding or other rain-related incidents,” state government spokesman Shishir Singh said.
More than 200 people have died in torrential rains and landslides in Indian states like Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Sikkim. Meanwhile, 42 people have died in Bangladesh since May 17. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people are displaced during the rainy season.
Colonel Sanjay Srivastava, whose organization Lightning India Resilient Campaign works with India’s meteorological department, said lightning had killed nearly 750 people across India since April.
This includes 20 people who died in Bihar state in the past two days and 16 in India’s central state of Madhya Pradesh earlier this month.
Global warming
Sunita Narain, director general of the Center for Science and the Environment, said global warming was playing a role in the rising number of lightning strikes. A temperature increase of one degree Celsius increases lightning 12 times.
Srivastava added that deforestation, siltation of waters and pollution contributed to climate change, which then led to more lightning strikes.
JP Gupta, director of the meteorological department, said thunderstorms and lightning have increased this year due to rising pollution levels.
“High ground temperatures cause water masses to evaporate, which adds moisture to the atmosphere. The presence of aerosols due to air pollution creates favorable conditions for clouds to thunderstorms trigger lightning activity,” Gupta said.
(AP/ar)
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