Most of the people killed by lightning across the country are farmers. On Friday (3 May) alone, 11 people were killed and nine injured, and most of those who have died so far this year were farmers. To help save lives, the voluntary social organisation Save the Society and Thunderstorm Awareness Forum (SSTF) has advised farmers working in the fields to follow three rules.

Members of the organisation also explained how farmers can keep themselves safe when lightning strikes.

• If you are under the open sky, take shelter in a safe place as soon as you see dark clouds.
• Do not stay under a tree when it rains.
• Wear shoes when working under the open sky. If lightning strikes suddenly while you are in the field, crouch low and lie down.

Over two days of field visits on Saturday and Sunday (4-5 May), the SSTF ran lightning awareness activities, including these three rules, among more than a hundred farmers.

Several SSTF teams met groups of farmers busy harvesting rice in fields in Sirajdikhan upazila of Munshiganj and Nawabganj upazila of Dhaka and explained how to protect themselves from lightning.

The activities were led by the organisation's general secretary Rashim Molla, research cell chief Abdul Alim, joint secretary Mostak Ahmed and volunteer Md Shariful Islam. Soft drinks, sherbet and oral saline were distributed among the farmers.

Farmers were told to keep shoes on while working in the open and to crouch low and lie down if lightning strikes. They were also told not to stay in the field but to move to a safe place when dark clouds appear. Staying under a tree in the rain is dangerous, so they were urged to take safe shelter as quickly as possible.

Rashim Molla, general secretary of the forum, called on the relevant government offices to build shelters in the fields quickly. He also advised running lightning awareness activities among farmers during the four months from March to June each year.

Abdul Alim, head of the forum's research cell, said there are two main reasons for the rise in lightning: global warming and the felling of trees in rural Bangladesh, especially tall trees in the fields. There were few trees in the haor fields before, and now trees in other areas have been cut too. As a result, lightning finds people in fields or open spaces as the tallest conductor within a kilometre, or livestock when there are no people. People die, and livestock die too.

He added that many people think it is safe to shelter under a tree at such times, but that is not true. Shelter must be taken in a house or under a concrete structure.

In his view, installing lightning arresters in the traditional way can save people from lightning deaths and injuries. The cost is low; one can be fitted to a house for under Tk 10,000. The government could take the initiative to install them in the haors and open areas.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.