KATHMANDU: The data of Disaster Management Division show that more than 100 people die due to lightning every year. However, the authority is aware about lightening forecast system.
According to Kedar Neupane, chief of the Disaster and Conflict Management Division, 105 people died of lightning last year alone. Of them, 55 were men and 50 women. A total of 284 people were injured in lightning strikes. “Lightning occurs in Nepal from April to June. If awareness measures are taken, lightening fatalities can be reduced,” he said.
Though more than 100 people die and about 300 are injured in lightening strikes, the government authority is unaware about it. The Ministry of Home Affairs, which has been charged with the responsibility of natural disaster management, seems indifferent towards this fact, said lightning expert Dr Shree Ram Sharma. “We have been investigating the causes of lightning in Nepal for long. But the ministry has not done anything yet,” he said.
Sharma said the lightning can be forecast like weather and loss can be minimized. “The other countries have installed system to predict the lightning,” he said. “It has been found to be accurate by almost 90 percent. However, the government is yet to bring such equipment here, which is a must,” he added.
Neupane acknowledged the government’s failure to pay necessary attention towards it. “We have neither purchased such lightening-prediction equipment nor worked like other disaster related sectors,” he said, claiming the government as well as local bodies have campaigned awareness program in different places.
In order to protect from such natural disaster, earthing system can be installed in every house. “We are planning to install the earthing system in older houses first as the newly built houses install it in the beginning,” he said.
Shiva Ram Bhatta of Nuwakot, who currently lives in Kathmandu, said the government has not dealt with lightning as compared to floods and landslides and earthquake.
