Between April 1 and July 25, 429 people have died from lightning in India, up from 300 that died in the same period in 2022, according to data put together by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based public interest research and advocacy organisation, and shared with IndiaSpend by Kiran Pandey, Programme Director of the Environment Resources Unit at CSE. They collate data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the Disaster Management Division and media reports.
As of July 25, Bihar had recorded the maximum number of deaths (160), higher than the same period last year when it recorded 57 deaths, Pandey said.
In 2021, more people died due to lightning strikes than floods or cold exposure. As many as 40% of the 7,126 accidental deaths reported by the National Crime Records Bureau attributed to weather events were due to lightning strikes.
Between 2000 and 2021, over 49,000 have died from lightning strikes across the country. The latest numbers from the IMD are from March 2023, and show that 68 people died due to various weather events, of which 60 died due to lightning strikes.
"Lightning is often called a silent killer. This is because even though lightning kills more people every year than heat waves, floods, landslides and cyclones, it somehow does not make headlines," said Akshit Sangomala, who writes on climate change, science and policy for CSE in New Delhi. "This could be because the deaths are not clustered together and spread over time and space."
"This could also be a reason why lightning has not been declared a natural disaster by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), as yet. Some states, such as Bihar, have made a demand for this declaration," he further added.
We reached out to the NDMA for comment--on why lightning has not been declared a natural disaster despite a high national death toll--via call and email, and will update the story when we receive a response.
One doesn't have to be a genius to come to such an understanding.