Awareness key to preventing deaths due to lightning in Jharkhand: Weather experts

Ranchi: The 38 deaths in lightning in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan in the past 24 hours have brought into sharp focus Jharkhand, which weather scientists believe, is prone to lightning strikes because of its altitude.
Nearly 150-200 deaths occur annually due to lightning strikes, even after timely warnings by the weather office.
“During our study we found that Jharkhand, being on a plateau and surrounded by water bodies or isolated tall trees in open fields, attract lightning,” said weather scientist at Birsa Agriculture University, Dr Abdul Wadood, who headed a project on identification of lightning sensitive areas in the state. Wadood believes that the most essential part is creating awareness in rural areas.
The project, taken up in 2008 following a lightning strike which killed students in a Namkom school, was monitored by Jharkhand High Court. It was then that lightning sensors were installed at seven places for predicting possible lightning and issuing alerts.
Wadood also pointed out that loads of minerals can play a role in attracting lightning but no specific study with hydrology or minerology in mind has been conducted yet.
“Though we had created a lightning map, it was found that issuing warning was of no help unless the people knew about the dos and don’ts,” Wadood said pointing to the death of 11 people in different parts of the state on July 4, earlier this month.
Acting director of Ranchi IMD, Abhishek Anand, said that the meteorological department has upto-date apparatus and sensors to predict lightning well in advance. “We have been issuing alerts whenever there is a chance of thunderstorms,” he said.
Convener of Lightning Resilient India Campaign, Col Sanjay Srivastava, agreed that awareness played a crucial role in avoiding fatalities due to lightning. He flagged off a Vajrapat Jagrukta Rath alongside Ranchi deputy commissioner Chhavi Ranjan on July 7 to create awareness in the rural areas of Ranchi. “The Lightning Resilient India Campaign is being supported by IMD, ministry of earth sciences, Unicef, Red Cross and others,” he said.
Wadood pointed out that wall graffiti about dos and don’ts, putting up hoardings in village haats and announcements through the public address system could go a long way to tell people that they should not take shelter under trees during rain. “During our study we found that 65-70 per cent of the deaths occurring due to lightning were linked to taking shelter under the trees,” he said.
Explaining the reason for trees and ponds attracting lightning, he said that moving clouds often develop charge and the negative ions are towards the bottom of the cloud mass, facing the earth. “Though everything on earth is neutral, including the trees but when a negatively charged mass of cloud comes close to the trees it repels the negative ions of the tree towards the ground making the canopy positively charged. When the potential difference between the cloud and tree top increases beyond a certain limit, there is a di-electric breakdown of the bad conductor air column allowing huge amount of electricity to flow down into the earth, through the tree,” he said.
“I advise them to get away from water-stagnated fields, ponds and higher places. Pucca buildings and dry flat areas are safer,” Wadood said.