Safety from lightning strikes

If Kalbaishakhi is frightening enough, the accompanying lightning and thunder are now increasingly striking terror in the hearts of people in this part of the world. During April-May the incidence has become particularly higher in recent years. A total of 340 people were fatally struck by lightning during the period. Among these people, 274 including 239 men and 35 women died in lightning strikes during the December-April period, according to the Save the Society and Thunderstorm Awareness Forum (SSTF) which disclosed the death toll during an awareness programme on May 4.
Amid the global weather-related irregularities, nearly 3,000 people in Bangladesh were killed in lightning strikes in the last one decade. The majority of them are farmers. Weathermen have started interpreting an increase in the lightning deaths as a phenomenon linked to climate change. According to climatologists, as carbon emission builds in the earth's atmosphere and average global temperatures rise, the frequency and intensity of powerful storms increase in the northern Bangladesh, leading to frequent lightning strikes. Unfortunately, Bangladesh is a lightning-prone country. In 2017, Sunamganj district was ranked the most lighting-prone place in the world, thanks to the lightning strikes between March and May that year.
The South American county Venezuela is considered the most lightning-prone in the world. Given its status of being a country frequently hit by thunderbolt, Bangladesh should have a vigorous lightning awareness campaign in place. Except periodic government promises of coping with the scourge affecting the rural farming community, effective actions in this regard are yet to be taken. They remain ever elusive. The SSTF has been stressing proper knowledge about it among villagers, especially farmers, for the last four years. The vulnerable people also include the fishing community in rivers and 'haors'. It demands effective and practical steps on the part of the government. The forum puts forward two suggestions: creating lighting awareness among people by including the topic in the school and college-level textbooks; and erecting lightning-resistant towers along with planting tall and fast-growing trees in the fields adjacent to croplands.
The death of 66 people and injury to another eight people from lightning strikes between March and May 3 give a clear picture of the pattern of falling victim to these deadly strikes. Fifty-one died while working in the field all alone, 11 people died while on boats or fishing. So, if there was an early warning system to alert people of the coming danger even an hour or two ago, people could avoid such deaths by taking shelter in a safe place. Alongside this, lightning-resistant towers can be installed in the most lightning-prone areas. Already the government has started setting up such intercepting devices called arresters on steel poles 30 feet high, within 300 feet of which man and animal will be safe from lightning strikes. The programme should be extended to all lightning-prone areas within a short time. At the same time, planting trees like palms can be of help. Before all the districts are brought under the programme of intercepting towers, farmers on their own initiative can plant palm trees on the dividing lines of their agricultural plots.