People-Killing Lightnings of Odisha

As a coastal state Odisha is blessed with a beach. But it has brought it's fair share of adversities too. It's most commonly known adversary being Cyclones, Lightnings have somehow stayed away from public discussion. Part of the reason is that lightnings don't impact an entire geographical area, which somehow leads to lower public awareness. But the thing is they usually don't strike, but when they do, they do it hard. 

Statistics shows, in Odisha cyclone kills around 60-70 people per year while lightning takes 250-300 lives. All this within a span of 5 months (may to sep). Now guess which state of India is at the top when it comes to lightning count ? It's none other than the beach side state called Odisha. Madhya Pradesh & Jharkhand takes the no 2 & no 3 spot. 

What's more surprising, 96% of death comes from rural areas. They are mostly farmers, labourers & tribal people. The most fundamental causes of death are :

1) Working in Open agricultural fields during monsoon seasons 

2) Staying in lightning prone homes (without proper earthing & not using lightning arresters) 

3) Lack of awareness about pre-cautionary measures during thunder storms 

Although initiatives are being taken to spread awareness, the sheer scale of death is intensely tragic. Personally I have witnessed few cases in my village too.  

On a regular stormy day a bread-earner of a family would be working in the fields & hours later people would carry his dead body back to home. An entire family would turn into skeletons. Children playing in open field would catch lightning & burn like a coal. Few family members would be sharing meals inside their lightning-prone homes & one strike would decimate them into flesh & bones. 

Call it foolishness of those people or their inevitable circumstance that pushes them into the open field, I would remember it as one of god's deadliest curse to the state of Odisha.