Early man was scared of bolts of thunder — his descendant, the modern man, has reasons to remain fearful of lightning. A recent study that collated data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau has found a staggering rise in deaths due to lightning strikes in India. The research, conducted by Fakir Mohan University in Balasore, Odisha, revealed that almost one-third of the deaths — 29,804 — occurred between 2010 and 2020 out of the 1,01,309 recorded deaths between 1967 and 2020: the data are thus suggestive of a spike in lightning deaths. Furthermore, the average annual fatalities have surged nearly four-fold. Almost 1,900 Indians perish as a result of this phenomenon every year; last year, the National Disaster Management Authority logged the average figure at no less than 2,500. Central and Northeast India recorded the most number of deaths, followed by the Northwest and the South. Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh account for 50% of the total lightning deaths. Scientists have attributed this uneven but sharp rise in casualties to extreme weather conditions and environmental degradation that are the direct consequences of climate change. Variations in regional topography play a role too: the wide expanses of open plains in Central India render it more vulnerable. The worst, apparently, is yet to come: incidents of lightning strikes are expected to rise with the aggravation of climate change, with a 2021 report by the Lightning Resilient India Campaign revealing that there were 18.5 million lightning strikes between April 2020 and March 2021, a 34% rise from the previous year.

What is of significance is a study that argues that India and other developing countries are better equipped to deal with adverse climate change events like floods and cyclones than with lightning. This points to existing inadequacies in India's weather monitoring system along with institutional inertia to mitigate the risks posed by lightning strikes. For instance, the demand from vulnerable states like Bihar and Bengal to declare lightning a natural disaster has been met with rejection. Not every state is proactive either: 29 states, including Odisha, have not formulated the state lightning action plan in violation of the NDMA’s directive. Incidentally, the United States of America has been witnessing a steady decline in lightning strike mortality. Perhaps there is a case for India’s policy planners to take a leaf out of the US’s book. Awareness campaigns should help tackle another relevant enemy — ignorance about lightning strikes — especially in India’s hinterland.