According to researchers, deaths due to lightning strikes in India are increasing rapidly. Between 1967 and 2020, a total of more than 1 lakh 1 thousand deaths have been recorded, which is an average of 1900 deaths per year.
Although more people are expected to be protected by increased awareness and urbanization, research has shown that deaths have increased sharply in the last decade alone.
Alarming increase in deaths due to lightning strikes in India
This trend makes lightning strikes one of India’s most common weather-related disasters.
Although the number of lightning strikes has not been directly measured, data on fatalities indicate that the process occurs unpredictably and frequently across the country.
The study, led by researchers at Odisha’s Faqir Mohan University, found that the average number of deaths per state rose from 38 percent between 1967 and 2002 to 61 percent between 2003 and 2020 and that India’s population reached 140 crores.
