Lightning strikes are becoming an increasing problem in South Asian nation due to global warming
Bangladesh has recorded 133 deaths, including those of 23 children, in the pre-monsoon season when lightning starts peaking from March to May. (Photo: Unsplash)
Bangladesh recorded 133 deaths, including those of 23 children, in the pre-monsoon season when lightning starts peaking from March to May in the South Asian nation, according to a non-government disaster preparedness and reduction unit.
“Awareness and early warnings could have saved many of these lives,” said Meherun Nesa, coordinator of the capital Dhaka-based Disaster Forum, which came out with this year’s figures.
Official confirmation of fatalities due to lightning is compiled later and is often accused of under estimating the real numbers.
Quoting newspaper reports, Disaster Forum said the country witnessed 133 deaths this season, including 23 children killed while picking mangoes or playing in the rain during thunderstorms.
Lightning, on an average, kills two people per day during the pre-monsoon season, and strikes are forecast to increase in Bangladesh due to global warming.
Over the last 14 years, since the nation began keeping tabs on the death toll, the Disaster Forum has reported a total of 3,746 fatalities, mostly farmers and 633 children.
“Farmers are literally putting their lives at risk"
In each of the last three years, Bangladesh has seen more than 300 deaths with 380 killed in 2020 alone.
Save the Society and Thunderstorm Awareness Forum (SSTAF), a voluntary organization, said in a 2019 study that 70 percent of victims were farmers, struck while working in their fields.
“Farmers are literally putting their lives at risk to feed Bangladesh,” SSTAF general secretary, Rashim Molla, said, citing official data that confirmed 2,785 fatalities between 2011 and 2021.
“Lightning fatalities have significantly increased as people spend more time working outside home than ever before,” said Atiqul Huq, former director-general of the state-run Department of Disaster Management.
The United Nations Capital Development Fund in a report mentioned Bangladesh as a country with one of the highest death rates by lightning. Northern Bangladesh is more prone to strikes.
“‘The hotter the temperature gets the more charged clouds become,” observed A Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, a non-government organization involved in climate research.
"A deterministic lightning forecast is possible with existing technology"
“Changing climate is increasing both lightning intensity and frequency,” he said.
But Bangladesh still lacks a lightning forecast system.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department gives a generalized weather forecast daily; often featuring a sweeping warning that lightning might occur at many places.
But a deterministic lightning forecast is possible with existing technology, tracking thunderstorms as they form and their potential strike places.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department announced the launching of an automated thunderstorm and lightning forecast system in March last year though no deterministic lightning forecast is yet to come from it.
“We are working, building our skills. It will be a few years before we can give location and time-specific lightning warnings,” said meteorologist Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik.
Bangladesh has undertaken a number of projects since 2014 and spent millions of dollars without success in mitigating the dangers posed by lightning.
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