Death thunders are rising in lightning
Lightning struck yesterday also on Friday. Lightning struck 14 people in 12 districts yesterday. 67 people were killed in lightning in the last five days including 14 people. Most of the people who are going to die are common farmer-eaters in the field. Earlier, the death toll in April was cut by about 76 people; It's more than twice the previous year. In April of 2013, 32 people died due to lightning, 43 in April of the previous year. This caravan of death will continue till May-June-July. Seasonal air fare or monsoon in the months of departure (August-September-October) people die in lightning. But less than the months of the arrival of monsoon (April-May-June).
Thunderstorms have increased
There is no detailed study in Bangladesh about the reason for the increase in lightning. However, many researchers have presented different reasons for this. Some researchers say that if the temperature increases one degree, the thunderstorm increases by 10 percent. Some of the world's regions are thunderstorm, among which South Asia is one of the largest. A study by US Space Agency NASA and Maryland University has revealed that the maximum thunderstorm in Bangladesh is in Sunamganj. Lightning hits most in Haoranchal
It is difficult to confirm whether the amount of lightning has increased in recent years due to not reliable data. But the number of casualties increased due to thunderstorms. The government has identified lightning as a natural disaster after at least three and a half hundred people died in lightning in 2016. Then there is a special plan to stop the thunderstorm and the warning program starts. But it did not diminish the death rallies.
Meteorologist Rubayat Kabir of Bangladesh Meteorological Department said that some places in the country were lightning-prone. Among them one is the northern and northwestern districts. This situation arises due to high temperatures in the region during the summer. In areas where temperatures are more than normal in summer, there is a possibility of thunderstorms from the cloud formed in those areas. From the 2010 to 2015, the lightning strikes from Brahmanbaria to Sunamganj alone have more than one lightning-prone area analyzing the loss of lightning. In addition, there is a trend of casualties in Jessore-Satkhira region and in Chapainawabganj, Dinajpur and Lalmonirhat areas of northern Bangladesh.
Recently more people were killed by lightning in the natural disaster. This trend is becoming increasingly visible in India and Nepal. Many of the disaster and weather scholars believe that thunderstorm is due to climate change, it has not yet come. However there is no debate over the thunderstorm relationship with temperature.
There is no way to stop
There is no scope to ignore the number of deaths in lightning. After enlarging the thunderstorm in 2016, the palliative program was started in the country. Initially, the disaster management ministry is planting 10 lakh talagas all over the country.
Director General of Disaster Management Department Riaz Ahmed said around 28 lakh seeds have been collected and planted. But since the patchwork will take some time to grow, as well as some technologically advanced measures. Following Vietnam and Thailand, various projects have been taken to control lightning. Meanwhile, more than one officer of the ministry has been trained in these two countries. Trained officials have finalized the design of the proposed towers. Projects to construct a single shelter station in the lightning tower and haor areas have been undertaken in different parts of the country including the capital.
However, planting of land on the side of Talgacha road can be considered and the other species of fast growing trees such as betel leaf, betel etc. can be considered.
The Meteorological Office has worked to establish 'Lightning Detective Sensor' for early warning signs of lightning. This sensor will be installed on experimental basis in Dhaka, Chittagong, Tentulia of Panchagarh, Badgalgachi of Naogaon, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Khulna's kayra and Patuakhali. The Meteorological Department is hoping that the figure of the entire country will come up in eight sensors. The length of each sensor is 250 kilometers. Monitoring up to one thousand kilometers of each sensor can be done. In a season (April to June), how many times the lightning and thunderbolt in the country will be preserved. By the end of this year, this technology will officially start.
According to the information provided by the Meteorological Office, lightning sensing and number assessment tools were bought under the project 'Strengthening the Weather Observatory in 13 Ports in Bangladesh'. The total cost of implementation of the project is Tk 62 crores. The cost of purchasing 8 detective sensor equipment from the United States is about 20 million taka. When this system is properly introduced, there can be a thunderstorm in the district during the storm-rains, you can tell the weather office. Even the lightning signal can be given for 10 minutes to half an hour.
This will give people of the area time to move to safe place. This will reduce the loss of lightning in the country.
This work needs to be added to Community Radio Network. And with modernization of the Meteorological Department, they will also have to come out from the traditional arrangements of information sharing.