India Sees Spike in Lightning Deaths: What Can Govt Do To Mitigate the Problem?

Even though fatalities due to lightning strikes have gone up, it is still not notified as a natural disaster.

As heavy rain lashed parts of north India earlier in July, at least 17 people lost their lives in Uttar Pradesh – all due to lightning strikes. The deaths were reported within a span of three days.

In the second week of July, at least 15 people were killed after being struck by lightning in eight districts in Bihar. The deaths occurred within a span of 24 hours.

Data shows that lightning strikes have increased in frequency in India. So have the deaths related to it. As per the India Meteorology Department (IMD), around 2,500 people die due to lightning strikes in India annually.

However, lightning is still not declared a natural disaster and the Centre is not in favour of doing it either, a senior government official told The Hindu. Instead, lightning deaths are recorded under the "accidental deaths" category by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Why is the Centre not in favour of declaring lightning a natural disaster? And why should it be declared as such? The Quint explains.

How Have Frequency of Lightning Strikes Increased?

Various studies have shown that lightning strikes have increased in terms of frequency and intensity. As Sunil Pawar, a scientist at the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), explained to The Quint, "Since 2019, the frequency of lightning strikes has risen by between 20 and 35 percent across various regions of India."

The 2020-21 Annual Lightning Report published by non-profit organisation, Climate Resilient Observing Systems Promotion Council, recorded a 34 percent increase in lightning strikes within a year.

A study by scientists from the Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, found that lightning strikes had increased by around 25 percent from 1998 to 2014, and that their frequency was projected to increase further by the turn of the century. 

And it is just set to get worse. In India, a 2021 study published in the journal 'Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics' said that by the end of the century, lightning frequency is set to increase by between 10 percent and 25 percent, while its intensity is expected to spike by between 15 and 50 percent.

What About Fatalities?

The NCRB data reveals that more than 1,00,000 people died due to lightning strikes between 1967 and 2019. This is 33 percent of all deaths caused by natural hazards over the 52-year period and is more than twice the casualties due to floods.

In 2022 alone, lightning claimed the lives of 907 people across the country, as per the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

In 2021, 2,800 people died due to lightning in India, the NCRB data revealed. At least 2,862 people died due to lightning in 2020 and the number stood at 2,876 in 2019, the same data showed.

Does Climate Change Have a Role To Play in the Spike?

Climate scientists around the world are sounding the alarm about the risk of global warming increasing the frequency of lightning strikes.

Rising land and sea surface temperatures causes the air above to warm and makes more energy available to drive thunderstorms from where lightning emanates.

As Pawar explained to The Quint:

"Heating over land and moisture over water create favourable conditions for thunderclouds to trigger lightning activity. As India is getting warmer due to climate change, thunderstorms will increase."

Quoting a study by the University of California, Colonel Sanjay Srivastava, a retired Army veteran and chairman of the Climate Resilient Observing Systems Promotion Council (CROSPC), told The Quint:

"As per a study conducted by University of California, with every 1 degrees Celsius rise in temperature, there is 12 percent additional loading of moisture and more than 12 percent rise in lightning strikes. A similar, study in India has shown with every rise of 1 degrees Celsius temperature, there is more than 7 percent rise in lightning strikes."

The Demand To Notify It as a Natural Disaster

As per the present rule, drought, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloudburst, pest attack, frost, and cold waves are considered disasters that are covered under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). Lightning strikes are not covered under the SDRF.

The SDRF is funded by both the state and the Centre, with the central government providing 75 percent of the funds.

States such as Bihar and West Bengal that have demanded that deaths due to lightning be covered as a natural disaster. Due to lightning not being covered under the SDRF, states have to use their own resources to respond to lightning-related disasters. This can be a substantial financial burden, especially for poorer states that may not have the resources and means to adequately respond to such disasters.

In its annual report for 2021-2022, CROPC stated that merely 16 states out of 29 in India had declared lightning a state disaster.

Srivastava said that as per the 15th Finance Commission guidelines on utilisation of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) funds, "the percentage of allocation is divided among various aspects of disaster management, such as under response, it is 80 percent, under mitigation, is is 20 percent. Now, the response is subdivided in three portions – response and relief 40 percent, rehabilitation and reconstruction 30 percent, and capacity building and preparedness 30 percent."

"Now under response and relief out of the 40 percent, only 10 percent be used for paying compensation to victims. States then are forced to have to bear the additional cost out of the state resources. As a result, there is limited fund available for prevention, mitigation and other aspects of disaster management," he told The Quint.

"Such provisions do not serve the purpose and in most of the schemes, lightning is therefore not incorporated as a disaster," he added.

What's the Centre's Response?

The Centre clarified to the Rajya Sabha last year in a written reply that as per guidelines, state governments can use up to 10 percent of the annual funds allocation of their SDRF, for providing immediate relief to the victims of natural disasters that they consider to be 'disasters' within local context in the state, including lightning.

Srivastava added that since lightning is not a notified disaster according to the Ministry of Home Affairs, "lightning risk management does not get required attention in national policy directives and developmental programmes."

The Centre, however, said that deaths caused by lightning can be avoided through education and awareness.