Madhya Pradesh witnessed highest lightning strikes, followed by Maharashtra in last year: Report

Image for representational purpose only. Photo: istock

Lightning is increasingly becoming a troubling natural phenomenon in India over the years. The Annual Lightning Report 2021-22 that was released on June 16 has indicated the changing trend in the last one year. The report has also listed states that witnessed increase and decrease in lightning strikes.

During the year 2021-2022, Goa witnessed a very high rise in lightning strikes, up to 338 per cent, followed by Pudducherry at 80.77 per cent, Himachal Pradesh at 66.27 per cent, Karnataka 68.74 per cent, and Jammu & Kashmir 49.86 per cent.

Chandigarh and Sikkim showed maximum reduction in Cloud-to-Ground strikes by 40 per cent and 38.44 per cent, respectively. This was followed by Haryana 26.67 per cent, Bihar 23.4 per cent, Jharkhand 25.05 per cent, and Odisha 25.57 per cent.

The Annual Lightning Report 2021-22 was released by the Lightning Resilient India Campaign, a joint initiative of the Climate Resilient Observing Systems Promotion Council (CROPC) and the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Ministry of Earth Sciences.

In general, Madhya Pradesh continued to be at the top state with highest lightning strikes followed by Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh having witnessed more strikes compared to Odisha. West Bengal, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan were found to witness more than two lakh Cloud-to-Ground lightning strikes.

The IMD has an app called 'Damini' that sends out early warning to the mobile owner as per the location of the device. "The need of the hour is to enhance the appeal for far more capacity building programmes in view of the continued deaths," IMD director General, Meteorology, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said at the report release.

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