‘Community-driven action in villages can help avoid such deaths'
While there are apps like Damini, Sachet and Mausam which monitor lightning activity and accordingly, send alerts so that people can take shelter, villagers - who often form a majority of such deaths - do not own smartphones and thus, such measures do not protect them.
In such situations, one needs localized and community-driven action to protect people from getting struck by lightning. Most lightning deaths take place when people are standing under trees during a storm, working in fields, grazing cattle and taking shelter inside temporary structures.
Thus, one should steer clear of trees, water bodies and open fields during a thunderstorm and awareness programmes should be organized to spread this message among farmers and cattle grazers, especially.
School teachers, Asha workers, Anganwadi staff and panchayat leaders can spread safety measures through street plays, posters and community meetings. The authorities can designate concrete schools and panchayat offices as lightning-safe shelters. These are just some of the measures that can be applied in rural areas.
(The writer is a professor at the department of geography, Fakir Mohan University, Balasore)
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