Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
The lightning strikes as pre-monsoon thunderstorms wreaked havoc across the country since March, which already has created panic among the people.
Scores of people die every year after being struck by lightning during wet season from March to October.
The death toll reached 186 in last 11 days while the number of dead crossed over 1900 in last eight years. Even most of the incidents remain out of record of the government and the concern institutes, reports Digester Forum.
In the latest, 29 people were reportedly killed from lightning in 12 districts on May 9 that considered as the highest death this year.
In the history of the country, a total of 86 people died in thunderbolts in a single day in 2014. Following that thunderstorm incident, it was declared as natural disaster, added the Digester Forum.
At least 200 people died in 2018, 205 in 2017, 245 in 2016, 186 in 2015, 210 in 2014, 285 in 2013, 301 in 2012 and 179 in 2011, it said.
Farmers harvesting rice in open fields made up the majority of victims and their number is 43 per cent. Besides, 22 pc died in houses, 14 pc in water bodies and 12 in roads, according to the Department of Disaster Management.
According to Bangladesh’s Met Office, 1,476 people have died from lightning in Bangladesh since 2010 as per the data report of Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
As per the Government of Bangladesh statistics, since 2011 an annual average of about 200 people died in lightning strikes. But, scientists estimate the number is more than 500 per year.
According to a 2014 University of Berkeley study, lightning strikes are expected to increase by 12 per cent for every degree Celsius of warming, with a 50 per cent rise in lightning expected by the end of the century.
AQM. Mahbub, an earth and environmental science professor at the University of Dhaka, said rising global temperatures over the last century was driving a range of changing weather phenomenon, including stronger tropical cyclones, thunderstorms, floods, droughts and heat waves.
“The increased numbers of lightning strikes may be due to global warming but it needs further research to be confirmed,” he said.
According to Sanaul Haque, the Met office duty-forecasting officer in Dhaka, rural people, especially farmers working in the open field during thunderstorms, should lie down or sit down in their fields rather than taking shelter under a tree.
The lightning strikes as pre-monsoon thunderstorms wreaked havoc across the country since March, which already has created panic among the people.
Scores of people die every year after being struck by lightning during wet season from March to October.
The death toll reached 186 in last 11 days while the number of dead crossed over 1900 in last eight years. Even most of the incidents remain out of record of the government and the concern institutes, reports Digester Forum.
In the latest, 29 people were reportedly killed from lightning in 12 districts on May 9 that considered as the highest death this year.
In the history of the country, a total of 86 people died in thunderbolts in a single day in 2014. Following that thunderstorm incident, it was declared as natural disaster, added the Digester Forum.
At least 200 people died in 2018, 205 in 2017, 245 in 2016, 186 in 2015, 210 in 2014, 285 in 2013, 301 in 2012 and 179 in 2011, it said.
Farmers harvesting rice in open fields made up the majority of victims and their number is 43 per cent. Besides, 22 pc died in houses, 14 pc in water bodies and 12 in roads, according to the Department of Disaster Management.
According to Bangladesh’s Met Office, 1,476 people have died from lightning in Bangladesh since 2010 as per the data report of Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
As per the Government of Bangladesh statistics, since 2011 an annual average of about 200 people died in lightning strikes. But, scientists estimate the number is more than 500 per year.
According to a 2014 University of Berkeley study, lightning strikes are expected to increase by 12 per cent for every degree Celsius of warming, with a 50 per cent rise in lightning expected by the end of the century.
AQM. Mahbub, an earth and environmental science professor at the University of Dhaka, said rising global temperatures over the last century was driving a range of changing weather phenomenon, including stronger tropical cyclones, thunderstorms, floods, droughts and heat waves.
“The increased numbers of lightning strikes may be due to global warming but it needs further research to be confirmed,” he said.
According to Sanaul Haque, the Met office duty-forecasting officer in Dhaka, rural people, especially farmers working in the open field during thunderstorms, should lie down or sit down in their fields rather than taking shelter under a tree.
