Bhubaneshwar: At least nine people have lost their lives and 20 others have been injured in a series of lightning strikes across various districts in Odisha on Saturday, according to officials.
The fatalities include a minor boy, with the deceased coming from several districts: two each from Mayurbhanj and Bhadrak, and one each from Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Cuttack, and Ganjam. In Mayurbhanj, a tribal couple, Lachhman Murmu and his wife Sakar Murmu, were struck by lightning while engaged in paddy transplantation. They were trying to seek shelter from the storm when the lightning struck.
In Bhadrak, farmers Amar Sethi and Hemant Barik were killed by a lightning strike while working in their fields. A 13-year-old boy in Keonjhar was also killed by lightning, and 12 people sustained injuries in Bargarh due to the same phenomenon.
Data from the Climate Resilient Observing-Systems Promotion Council reveals that Odisha has experienced 10,741 lightning-related deaths over the past five years. The state has the highest incidence of lightning fatalities per 1,000 square kilometers in India, with 69 deaths per 1,000 square kilometers. It ranks second in terms of deaths per one million population, following Madhya Pradesh.
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