Syed Shemul Parvez :
Lightning strike has become one of the major panics to the people in the country. About 257 people have been killed by lightning in the first eight months of this year.
Due to the frequent fatal incidents because of lightning strike, most of the farmers are in panic over their livelihood as they have to work in the field for cultivation as well as collecting crops during the rainy session.
According to the sources of Disaster Management Department, every year, hundreds of people across the country are killed by lightning.
As a result, in 2016, Bangladesh declared lightning strikes a natural disaster when more than 200 people died in the month of May alone,
including 82 people on a single day.
Experts say deforestation has played a part in the rising number of the deadly lightning strikes due to the disappearance of many tall trees that before would have drawn lightning strikes.
However, the government has restructured and established the Disaster Management Department as the main organ or instrument in the field for implementing and coordinating various forms of disaster management activities.
In 2022, in the first eight months of the year, about 257 people, including nine in Sirajgangj, were killed in 53 districts of the country due to the lightning strike.
Habiganj, Sirajgangj and some other northern parts based on the haor areas have been marked as most affected places where maximum casualties occurred recently, said Nitai Chandro De Sarker, Director , MIM , Department of Disaster Management (DDM).
When asked about the preparation of DDM to tackle such lightning incidents, Mohammad Nuruzzaman, Deputy Director (DD) of the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) told The New Nation that DDM has already taken some initiatives to reduce the incidents caused by lightning strikes since the last fiscal year. As part of the initiatives, about 335 lightning arresters have been set up investing taka 19 crores in 115 upazila of 15 districts.
Before setting up these lightning arresters, we observed the whole country for four years and finally we marked some zones beside the haor areas where tendency of lightning strikes much, he said.
When asked about the palm tree project of DDM , Nuruzzaman said that actually the project of palm tree was not taken yet. But in generally we have taken some small projects where we inspire the people for palm-tree gardening, he said.
It is known that Many Upazila Agriculture Office have also taken initiatives to protect the farmers from lightning and thunder through setting up ‘Bojro Center’ (Lightning Protection Center) in the different parts of country. And there will be no lightning hit to the working farmers within one kilometer area of the center.
