44 lightning deaths in three weeks as Bihar struggles with growing threat
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Patna: On the afternoon of April 14, in the quiet village of Shadipur in the Arwal district of south Bihar, tragedy occurred with the sudden violence of nature. Awadhesh Yadav, his wife Radhika Devi and their daughter Rinku had stepped out to collect bundles of wheat from their fields. As the sky darkened and rain began to fall, the family took shelter beneath a stack of straw – a decision that would prove fatal. In a flash, a bolt of lightning struck the area. The straw caught fire and within moments, all three were engulfed in flames. None survived.
Such harrowing incidents have become all too familiar in Bihar where lightning has emerged as a silent killer in the countryside. Far from rare freak occurrences, these deaths are now a recurring calamity.
Between March 20 and April 10 this year alone, lightning strikes claimed 44 lives across the state – 22 of them in a single day on April 10, according to figures from the Bihar State Disaster Management Authority. The previous year, in 2024, the toll stood at a staggering 304. And it's not an isolated trend as the Bihar Economic Survey 2023-24 reported 400 lightning-related deaths in 2022, with Gaya (46), Bhojpur (23) and Nawada (21) recording the highest casualties. The year 2020 saw an even grimmer figure – 459 deaths.
But why is Bihar particularly vulnerable?
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According to Sudhakar Jha, director of the G P Sinha Centre for Disaster Management and Rural Development, a deadly cocktail of factors is at play. "Lightning causes more deaths in Bihar because of its high population density and the farmers' dependence on rain-fed agriculture," he said. "Preponderance of palm trees, which earlier used to absorb lightning, have also been drastically cut both in rural and urban areas, leading to more deaths. As more and more farmers remain active in open fields during rains, they are more vulnerable to death," Jha added.
There is, however, a measure of solace in the govt's response. "It is good on the part of Bihar govt that it has notified lightning as a local disaster and has been paying a sum of Rs four lakh to the kith and kin of the victim," Jha said.
Meanwhile, scientists and meteorologists are racing to decode the growing menace. Pradhan Parth Sarthi, head of the environmental science department at the Central University of South Bihar and president of the Indian Meteorological Society (Bihar branch), said lightning activity has intensified in southern Bihar, particularly in districts like Kaimur, Aurangabad, Rohtas, Bhojpur, Gaya and Nalanda, as well as parts of eastern Bihar.
To monitor this growing threat, the Union ministry of earth sciences has initiated a nationwide lightning location network (LLN), installing lightning sensors at strategic locations. "Under this scheme, a lightning sensor has been installed at the rooftop of CUSB in Gaya," said Sarthi. "This lighting sensor is providing live data to a fully online system accessible 24x7 on an interactive web map hosted by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune. The recorded data through sensor is being sent continuously, without manual intervention, to the central processor at IITM," he added.
These insights are not only helping scientists understand the frequency and distribution of lightning but are also proving crucial in developing early warning systems.
One such innovation is the Novel Initiative Technological Intervention for Safety of Human Lives (NITISH), a lightning alert device developed by the Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA) in collaboration with IIT-Patna. Shaped like a pendant and designed for use by farmers, the device sounds an alert half an hour before lightning is expected.
"Moreover, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and BSDMA have been issuing alerts through the Location Lightning Network, showing lightning activity in the immediate neighbourhood after 10, 20, and 30 minutes in three different colours," said a BSDMA official.
In another innovative step, the state govt last year introduced "lightning safety vans" to spread awareness from one panchayat to the next. These GPS-equipped vans broadcast lightning safety information via microphones and assist officials in tracking outreach efforts in real time. The govt hopes to reduce lightning-related fatalities by as much as 70% over the next five years through such campaigns.
Further bolstering public safety is the mobile app "Indravajra", recently launched by the department of disaster management. The app issues alerts 40 to 45 minutes before a lightning strike is expected within a 20km radius, directly notifying users through their smartphones.
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