At least 1,760 people were killed by lightning in Bangladesh from 2011 to 2018. In 2016, 81 people died in just four days, and 359 were killed in 2018.

A nationwide programme to plant palm saplings has been taken up to reduce the impact of lightning, and about 38 lakh saplings have been planted so far, said Enamur Rahman, state minister for disaster management and relief.

"This programme is continuing. Lightning has also been given importance in the Standing Orders on Disaster (SOD)," he said at a round-table on "Lightning risk in Bangladesh and what to do", organised by BRAC at the Spectra Convention Centre in the capital on Tuesday (24 December).

The state minister said that although the country has tested models for managing cyclones and floods, it still has none for lightning. To overcome this, the government wants both structural and non-structural solutions. The greatest emphasis is on research, because there are many misconceptions about lightning at every level.

He said the government's future priorities are to identify the causes of lightning risk and rising deaths and campaign widely on how to reduce them, to include articles on the subject in primary and secondary textbooks, to carry out research on early warning of lightning, and to put in place systems to receive early warnings and inform the public.

The government's priorities also include making and showing short films and awareness songs to raise public awareness, implementing lightning guidance in the building code, and encouraging private organisations to run lightning awareness activities as part of their social responsibility.

According to figures given by the state minister, at least 1,760 people were killed by lightning in the country from 2011 to 2018. In 2016, 81 people died in just four days, and 359 were killed in 2018.

He said the Bangladesh government declared lightning a disaster in 2015.

Source: Dhaka Tribune. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.