Lok Sabha Question No. 3235 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-09
Subject: Deaths due to Lightning Strikes
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Debasree Chaudhuri, Vellalath Kochukrishnan Nair. Sreekandan, Sanjay Jaiswal, Tirath Singh Rawat

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3235 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 9 TH  AUGUST, 2023

## DEATHS DUE TO LIGHTNING STRIKES

3235.   MS. DEBASREE CHAUDHURI: SHRl V.K. SREEKANDAN: DR. SANJAY JAISWAL: SHRI TIRATH SINGH RAWAT:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government proposes to declare lightning as a natural calamity in view of the rising deaths caused by lightning strikes in some States and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (b) the  number  of  people  who  died  due  to  lightning  strikes  in  various  States  of  the  country, State-wise;
- (c) whether in the year 2021 alone, 2,880 people died in lightning strikes according to National Crime Records Bureau and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether it is a fact that 96 per cent of the deaths due to lightning occur in rural areas and out of these 77 per cent are farmers;
- (e) whether financial assistance in the form of a certain amount is provided by the Government to the family of the deceased on compassionate grounds and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and
- (f) the  concrete  steps  proposed  to  be  taken  by  the  Government  to  prevent  deaths  caused  by lightning strikes?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF EARTH SCIENCES

## (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)

- (a) Presently  the notified list  of  disasters  eligible  for  National  Disaster  Response  Fund (NDRF)/State  Disaster  Response  Fund  (SDRF)  assistance,  includes  12  disasters    namely cyclone,  drought,  earthquake,  fire,  flood,  tsunami,  hailstorm,  landslide,  avalanche,  cloud burst,  pest  attack  and  frost  &  cold  wave. The  issue  of  inclusion  of  more  calamities  in  the existing  notified  list  of  calamities,  was  considered  by  the  15 th Finance  Commission.  The Commission in para 8.143 of its report had observed that the list of notified disasters eligible for funding from State Disaster Response Mitigation Fund (SDRMF) and National Disaster Response Mitigation Fund (NDRMF) covers the needs of the State to a large extent and thus did not find much merit in the request to expand its scope.
- (b) The State-wise details of the number of people died due to lightning strikes, as provided by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is given in Annexure-I.
- (c) Yes Sir. Details provided in AnnexureI.
- (d) Yes Sir.
- (e) Ministry of Earth Sciences, through India Meteorological Department (IMD), issues forecast and  warnings  for  thunderstorms  and  associated  weather  phenomena  five  days  in  advance with regular updates. The assistance to the affected families is coming under the purview of the respective State Governments.
- (f) IMD provides forecasts for thunderstorms and associated phenomena such as lightning on all time scales. On five day to 3 hour time scales, quantitative alerts are issued by IMD which are colour coded based on expected impact of the weather occurrence.

The nowcast for thunderstorms and associated weather such as strong surface winds, hail, lightning and rainfall are issued to the public and disaster managers by IMD for one to three hours  in  advance.  The  information  is  specific  up  to  the  district/town  of  occurrence,  and impact  expected  in  cases  of  severe  weather  associated  with  thunderstorm  occurrence.  The information is transmitted through the IMD website, mobile app based alerts ( MEGHDOOT, MAUSAM ),  SMS,  email  and  whatsapp  messages  in  local  language.  Currently  on  the  IMD website, 3 hourly warnings are issued  round the clock for 732 districts  of India and 1089 important  cities/towns  all  over  the  country.  Closer  to  the  actual  event  occurrence,  the DAMINI  mobile  App (developed and maintained by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology)  provides  information  on  one's  mobile  about  lightning  occurrence  in  the vicinity of the user (40 km) during the last 15 minutes as well as its likely occurrence during the next half hour.

| States/UTs                | 2019   |   2020 |   2021 |
|---------------------------|--------|--------|--------|
| Andhra Pradesh #          | 109    |     93 |    100 |
| Arunachal Pradesh         | 0      |      0 |      0 |
| Assam                     | 28     |     14 |     16 |
| Bihar                     | 400    |    436 |    286 |
| Chhattisgarh              | 212    |    246 |    230 |
| Goa                       | 2      |      0 |      1 |
| Gujarat                   | 64     |     78 |     40 |
| Haryana                   | 11     |      3 |     11 |
| Himachal Pradesh          | 1      |      5 |      4 |
| Jharkhand                 | 334    |    336 |    254 |
| Karnataka                 | 99     |     75 |    121 |
| Kerala                    | 15     |      8 |     15 |
| Madhya Pradesh            | 400    |    429 |    496 |
| Maharashtra               | 189    |    182 |    238 |
| Manipur                   | 0      |      0 |      0 |
| Meghalaya                 | 7      |      8 |      7 |
| Mizoram                   | 1      |      0 |      0 |
| Nagaland                  | 0      |      1 |      0 |
| Odisha                    | 271    |    275 |    287 |
| Punjab                    | 7      |      8 |     13 |
| Rajasthan                 | 88     |     48 |    132 |
| Sikkim                    | 0      |      0 |      0 |
| Tamil Nadu                | 57     |     64 |    109 |
| Telangana #               | 96     |     64 |     66 |
| Tripura                   | 10     |      5 |      4 |
| Uttar Pradesh             | 321    |    304 |    219 |
| Uttarakhand               | 2      |     10 |      1 |
| West Bengal               | 147    |    170 |    228 |
| TOTAL STATE(S)            | 2871   |   2862 |   2878 |
| A &NIslands               | 1      |      0 |      0 |
| Chandigarh                | 2      |      0 |      0 |
| D&NHaveli and Daman&Diu@$ | 1      |      0 |      0 |
| Delhi UT                  | 0      |      0 |      0 |
| Jammu &Kashmir@*          | 1      |      0 |      2 |
| Ladakh@                   | -      |      0 |      0 |
| Lakshadweep               | 0      |      0 |      0 |
| Puducherry                | 0      |      0 |      0 |
| TOTAL UT(S)               | 5      |      0 |      2 |
| TOTAL (ALL INDIA)         | 2876   |   2862 |   2880 |