DHAKA, Oct 6 (NNN-BSS) – Nearly 300 people, mostly rural farmers, have been killed, in lightning strikes in Bangladesh, this year.
A total of 297 people, including 242 men and 55 women died, due to lightning strikes during the period from Feb to Sept, this year.
Save the Society and Thunderstorm Awareness Forum (SSTF), a local organisation, published the death toll at a press conference in Dhaka, yesterday.
The SSTF, which has been monitoring casualties from thunderstorms since 2019, said, 73 people were injured during this period. The majority of lightning fatalities occurred in rural areas, where people were working on their farmlands, it said.
SSTF said, the figures for lightning casualties were collected from national dailies, local daily newspapers, online news portals, and television channels.
About 96 deaths were reported in May, along with 77 in June, 19 in July, 17 in Aug, and 47 in Sept.
Deaths due to lightning strikes are common in Bangladesh, in the months when the weather changes from the dry season to the rainy summer season.
But the country has seen a surge in deaths due to lightning strikes over recent years, and some of the country’s experts have blamed the situation directly on climate change.– NNN-BSS
