Bhubaneswar: Whenever lightning strikes, the people of Bajarmara village, located in Namkum block of Ranchi, tremble with the fear that something untoward may have happened. Lightning has caused so much destruction in this village as the name Bajarmara suggests, that probably this is the only village in the country where lightning strikes more than 500 times a year.
Odisha is another state which leads the country in terms of maximum number of lightning strikes. According to a report, there were 5.30 lakh lightning strikes in the State during 2021. However, Madhya Pradesh reports the highest number of lightning strikes in the entire country.
Last year, there were more than 6.5 lakh lightning strikes in Madhya Pradesh, while Chhattisgarh had about 5.7 lakh, Maharashtra 5.4 lakh, Odisha 5.3 lakh and West Bengal more than 5.1 lakh.
Jharkhand is also one of the six states of the country that have been identified as the most sensitive by the India Meteorological Department with regard to the dangers of thunder and lightning.
According to the data of the Meteorological Department, there has been 4,39,828 incidents of lightning in Jharkhand in 2021, it was about 4.5 lakh in 2020.
There is hardly any family in Bajarmara village of Jharkhand, which has not suffered loss of life or property due to lightning.
Similarly, an ancient fort located in Pithoria village of Ranchi is also hit by lightning several times every year. This fort, which has collapsed and turned into ruins, belonged to Jagatpal Singh, who was the king of this area about 200 years ago.
