Bhubaneswar: Odisha has reported 213 out of 780 deaths due to lightning and thunderstorms across the country in 2021. The data was shared by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) in its “Annual Statement on Climate of India during 2021”, published on Friday.
According to the IMD report, thunderstorms and lightning claimed more than 780 lives from different parts of the country. Among these, the significant reported deaths were – 213 from Odisha, 156 from Madhya Pradesh, 89 from Bihar, 76 from Maharashtra, 58 from West Bengal, 54 from Jharkhand, 49 from Uttar Pradesh and 48 from Rajasthan.
In addition to lightning, various parts of the country also experienced other Extreme Weather Events like tropical cyclones, extremely heavy rainfall leading to floods, landslide, thunderstorm, etc.
Overall, Maharashtra is the most adversely affected state during 2021, in terms of deaths due to adverse weather events. The State reportedly claimed more than 340 deaths mainly due to extremely heavy rainfall, floods, landslide, lightning, cyclonic storms and cold-wave events in 2021, the report stated.
“The causalities caused by these extreme events mentioned in the report are based on the media and the government reports from disaster Management Authorities,” the IMD stated.
Heavy rainfall and flood-related incidents claimed over 750 lives from different parts of the country. Of these, 215 lives were lostfrom Maharashtra, 143 from Uttarakhand, 55 from Himachal Pradesh, 53 from Kerala and 46 from Andhra Pradesh.
The other events like snowfall, cold wave, dust storm, gale, and hailstorm also affected different parts of the country causing loss of life, injury, loss of livestock & damage to crops and property, the Annual Statement on Climate of India during 2021 further stated.
