Torrential Monsoon rains accompanied by lightning strikes have claimed about 120 lives across the eastern parts of the country in last 2 days. The states of Bihar, Jharkhand, East Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have been witnessing thundershowers since Tuesday.
In a tweet recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his anguish.
Deeply anguished by loss of lives due to lightning in parts of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand & other parts of the nation over the last few days: PM
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 22, 2016
Monsoon showers definitely brought cheer among many but their joy was overshadowed by several deaths. The worst affected state is Bihar with about 57 people being killed and 37 others suffering from injuries. According to media reports around 42 people were reportedly killed by lightning in Uttar Pradesh as well. More than 10 people have been killed in Jharkhand and about 7 in Madhya Pradesh. On June 22, Skymet Weather had tweeted the live status of lightning strikes in Gaya:
LIVE status of #rain & #thunder over Northern half of #India: https://t.co/WTQJQKCH73 #Kota #Ahmedabad #Shimla #Gaya pic.twitter.com/BPCKxlbtFw
— SkymetWeather (@SkymetWeather) June 22, 2016
Lightning strikes are not uncommon in this part of India during Monsoons but the toll is unusually high this year. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, lightning kills about 2,000 people in India every year for the last 10 years.
Nalanda, Bhojpur, Rohtas, Kaimur, Aurangabad, Purnea, Samastipur, Chhapra, Katihar, Saharsa and Saran districts were majorly affected by lightning strikes in Bihar.
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The Bihar government has announced compensation of Rs. 4 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. Most of them were working on the farms when lightning struck them.
During last 24 hours, Forbesganj received 63. 3 mm of rainfall and Patna 7.4 mm. In Uttar Pradesh, Sultanpur received 38.4 mm, Fursatganj 20.4 mm, Banda 14.4 mm, Bareilly 12.4 mm and Varanasi 10.8 mm.
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Image credit: home.bt.com
Any information taken from here should be attributed to skymetweather.com
