Eight people died in Jharkhand over the last 24 hours because of heavy rain since Saturday.

Four members of a family including mother Neha Choudhary, 33; Ankit Choudhary, 11; Gagan Choudhary, 5; and Iksha Choudhary, 1, died after lightning struck their plastic-made makeshift tent structure erected near a tree on Sunday night in Narayanpur police station area of Jamtara district.

According to Dhunnu Choudhary, husband of the woman, they were nomads and had come from Purulia of Bengal a few months ago and were staying in tents at Chandadih-Lakhanpur village in Narayanpur area.

As the lightning struck the tent, all seven members of the family were rushed by nearby villagers through an ambulance to the community health centre in Narayanpur where the doctors declared four of them dead and sent them to Jamtara Sadar Hospital for post-mortem.

“It was raining heavily outside and everyone inside the tent was watching videos on mobile when the lightning struck,” said Dhunnu Choudhary.

He also claimed that they shift their locations from one place to another in search of food and sell cheap items from different places in other states.

Jamtara deputy commissioner Shashi Bhushan Mehra said that since they are nomadic people and do not have valid residential proof, it would be difficult to provide compensation according to disaster management rules.

“It would be difficult to pay them compensation as per disaster management rules. However, we would provide them some amount on compassionate grounds for performing rituals. We have asked people not to set up tents near trees during rain,” said the deputy commissioner.

In another incident, Budhram Deogam, 55, a native of Jojogutu village drowned in the Koyna river in the Saranda forest area while trying to negotiate the swollen river.

The incident took place while Budhram was returning from Chotanagra to his village and decided to take the shortest way by crossing the river but failed to notice that the river was in spate and drowned on Sunday evening. The body was recovered on Monday morning.

Two sisters, Lovely Kumari, 12, and Arushi Kumari, 9, both daughters of Ramesh Singh, drowned in a pond in Mayapur village of Lakshmipur panchayat under Naudiha Bazar police station area of Palamau district on Sunday evening.

Villagers claimed that both sisters had gone to take a bath in the pond on Sunday evening but because of the rains the water level in the pond had increased and they could not gauge the depth and drowned. Their bodies were taken out on Sunday evening by the villagers and taken to the hospital where they were declared as brought dead.

Meanwhile, police along with rescue staff managed to recover the body of Dev Prasad, who had been swept away in a big drain in the Lalpur area of Ranchi on Sunday night.

The body after recovery on Monday morning was sent for post-mortem before being handed over to relatives.

According to locals, Dev Prasad, while returning home on Sunday late evening along with his brother, slipped into the Hatma drain in Lalpur and was swept away.

The water levels in dams at Maithon, Panchet (both in Dhanbad) and Chandil (in Seraikela-Kharsawan) reached danger levels and the radial gates had to be opened on Monday.