Bhubaneswar, Dec 5: As many as 874 people have lost their lives due to lightning strikes in Odisha during the last two years between 2022-23 and 2023-24.

Odisha Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari on Thursday revealed the information in the state assembly while answering a question asked by MLA Ramesh Chandra Behera.

As per the revenue minister's reply, the state recorded the deaths of 306 people due to lightning in the 2022-23 financial year.

Similarly, 272 people lost their lives following lightning strikes in the state during 2023-24.

Mayurbhanj district with 81 deaths recorded maximum numbers of human casualties due to lightning during the last two years.

Meanwhile, Balasore and Ganjam districts witnessed 68 and 60 lightning deaths respectively, in the above period.

Answering to another query, Pujari further revealed that as many as 201 people died in lightning strikes during the current financial year in 2024-25.

He also added that 77 out of the deceased have received ex-gratia from the state government in the current financial year so far.

The Revenue Minister also told the House that lightning strike was declared a state specific disaster on April 1, 2015.

The family members of the persons losing their lives due to lightning strikes are being provided each with an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh by the state government.

It is pertinent here to mention that Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Ganjam districts are the major lightning-prone regions of the state.

Each of the districts experienced more than 2 lakhs lightning strikes in the last five years.

Notably, an average of 6 to 7 lakh lighting strikes per year have been recorded in all the 30 districts of the state during the period from 2019 to 2024.

Odisha is among the few states in the country that experiences maximum number fatalities due to thunderstorms.

To check the loss of lives due to lightning, the state government is planning to plant around 1.9 million palm trees throughout the state in 2024-25 and about Rs 7 crore will be spent for this.

--IANS

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