Question : Lightning Incidents

(a) the names of the States in which the incidents of lightning strikes have occurred in the current year and the last three years;

(b) the number of people who died due to lightning strikes, State-wise;

(c) the details of the assistance provided by the Government to the families of those killed by lightning strikes; and

(d) whether there has been an increase in the incidents of lightning strikes in the country including Tribal areas of Gujarat due to deforestation and if so, the concrete steps being taken by the Government to stop illegal cutting of forests to reduce the incidents of lightening?

THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR
MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
AND EARTH SCIENCES
(DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

(a)-(b) The State-wise details of lightning strikes and the number of people who have lost their lives are provided in the Annexure-1.
(c) Ministry of Earth Sciences, through India Meteorological Department (IMD), issues forecast and warnings for thunderstorms and associated weather phenomena five days in advance with regular updates. The assistance to the affected families is coming under the purview of the respective State Governments.
(d) Yes Sir. As per recent studies, lightning activity have shown increasing trend over India in past two decades. North-East, East and parts of peninsular India have registered a sharp increase of lighting over the past 2 decades. The increase is minimal over Central India and moderate over rest of the country. The information pertain to the illegal cutting of forests is not available with the ministry.