Lightning no God\'s punishment

Nilratan Halder | Published: October 01, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Lightning or thunderbolt has become the latest addition to natural calamities to strike terror into people's hearts. It has become a highly potent killer of late. Recently its casualties only for two days were reported to be 24 across the country. The yearly toll has so far surpassed the 100 mark. It is like missiles coming out of the vast blue sky and the persons to be struck do not even have the slightest idea that they are the targets.
Surprisingly, no death of cattle or other animals from lightning has been reported in the country so far. But lightning bolt has struck herds of cows in the USA three times this year. The latest one was on August 30 when 19 cows fell dead as they took shelter under a tree which was struck by the bolt. But what looked to be an apocalyptic scene was the death of 323 rain deer in a park in Norway when lightning struck those animals in late August.
Then why do people rather than animals here fall victim to the heaven-sent carrier of death? An American has a chance of being struck about one in a million each year and the odds in lifetime are about one in 12,000. No such accounts are available for a citizen of Bangladesh -least of all for livestock here.
However, it is clear that the deadly bolts are striking with far greater frequencies as if with vengeance. At times, the impression is that the sky has declared a war against the mortals below -at least on this land. The sky cracks with deafening reverberations one after another causing pandemonium with people running for shelter. But where can they hide themselves when lightning bolts start raining down from the sky?
Contrary to popular belief, lightning does not strike directly. But it may contain 20,000 or more amperes of current. When it hits the ground, it spreads all around and the sheer force of the current can kill anyone standing nearby. It travels at a fast and furious speed. Tall trees, wet and metal objects become potentially dangerous -trees by attracting lightning and water and metal objects, although they do not attract current, by being excellent conductors of electricity.
Then there is a type of lightning called side flash or side splash that jumps from an object to a living being or from a living being to a living being. So under a tree, the danger is greater because electricity will travel through its branches and roots to all who are under it. If a group of animals or human beings are there, electricity will bounce from one to another and then to another.
Studies have found that cattle are more prone to fall victim to lightning because they stay in open field and also because of their size. Still humans are becoming a prime target of lightning here. Both superstition and faith in divine justice may point at the sins committed by the mortals so randomly for this heavenly punishment. But science has its explanation. With increasing global warming, lightning frenzy has been on the rise. The weather is becoming ever more unpredictable. Eerie incidents are taking place because of global warming.
When difference in temperature trends over land and sea are somehow disrupted, the usual monsoon too is delayed or augmented. As things now stand today, wind pattern is getting impacted by warming of the Earth and therefore the weather is changing too. In that case cloud formation and clashes between clouds driven by winds at different levels may prompt generation of lightning. How this will affect people below is none the clouds' concern.
In the ultimate analysis, though, man is responsible for this disruptive weather. Rise in global temperature is caused by man alone because of the many activities related to production, his comfort and luxury. It is not a bolt from the blue but one that he has invited to his own peril.