The whole situation was very tragic when lightning struck a young man in the Pakur district of Jharkhand, and he lost his life on Monday afternoon. The accident happened when he was travelling to the Narayankhor village and crossing an open field when a thunderstorm suddenly struck.
At the inner hearing of the locals, it was late afternoon, and already the weather was cloudy, and the roll of thunder could be heard booming over the skies. There suddenly was a stroke of lightning that just hit the place where the young man was walking. This effect was so serious that he fell down immediately. Neighbouring villagers ran to the scene, but they were helpless because it was already late and the young man had died from his injuries.
According to eyewitnesses, it was a frightening moment. Then, a loud cracking noise followed by a flash. The local farmer who viewed the scene but a distance away said: “We were running on the spot, and there he was lying unconscious.”
The dead man, whose name has not been officially announced yet by a representative of the police, is expected to be in his early twenties, and he was a citizen of an adjacent village. It was said that he had been going to Narayankhor, on a personal errand, and the storm was beginning to collect. He was one of many in the country whose best means of sheltering himself against the weather was a meagre shade, and of whom none knew about the danger which imminently threatened them.
The loss is devastating to community members and the villages who are in grave shock. Postmortem on the body was later performed under the normal procedures, and the family is assured of the required support by the local authorities.
The district administration made its officials pay a visit to the site and also offered condolences to the grieved family. About ex-gratia payment, according to the government standards on lightning deaths, they also assured that the payment would be made as soon as possible.
This tragic incident draws attention to the frequent hazards of lightning strikes, particularly in the rainy season. Many such cases are reported annually in Jharkhand, a densely rural area with heavy monsoon patterns. The majority of the victims are either farmers, shepherds, or people who happen to be publicly exposed.
Scholars have always pointed towards the need for early warning systems and mobile weather alerts and awareness programmes in order to decrease such tragedies. Lightning continued to be one of the major killers of natural disasters in India despite the efforts of the government.
In places such as Pakur, where the facilities are few and real time weather conditions may not reach every person in the area, accidents like that are stern reminders of the unpredictability of nature.
With monsoon maintaining its advance over the states of Jharkhand along with other areas in eastern India, it has been advisable to the people there to be more vigilant in the case of thunderstorms and not to venture out in any case as the lightning sets in. Staying away during such periods on open fields, large trees, water, and metallic objects can save lives.
The loss of a young life, which was taken so soon, is sad to the community in Narayankhor and neighbouring areas, which is a reminder of how rapidly nature can become deadly.
