Unplanned urbanisation and felling of trees were behind a recent surge in lightning strikes and the number of deaths in such incidents in the country, a meteorologist of a Pune-based institute said.
These days, lightning is more in the cities than in the rural areas of India, the senior meteorologist of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), said.
"Around 3,000 to 3,500 people die every year in the country due to lightning. But the trend is little higher since the last five years. And this year we are expecting more lightning at stations over the foothills of Himalayas (starting from Jammu and Kashmir till the Darjeeling foothills) central and eastern part of the country," scientist of the Atmospheric Electricity Aerosol Physics of the IITM, Dr S D Pawar told PTI.
Though there is no past official record on the number of deaths because of lightning strikes in India, Dr Pawar said a study conducted by them in this connection in the last 20 years shows that it is "definitely" on the rise.
He said this is a natural phenomenon. Though lightning depends mostly on the moisture content of a particular region there is no exact reason behind the recent rise of lightning.
"However, urbanisation is one of the main causes behind the rise which is mostly witnessed in the metro areas," he said, adding global warming is also another reason behind the recent surge in the incidents of lightning.
He said with the cutting down of trees the city regions of India were turning into urban heat islands which is helping in.
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Elaborating the "urban heat island" concept, Dr Pawar said, that it is an effect which describes the variation in temperature between cities and their surrounding areas.
"Because of the cutting down of the trees and unplanned urbanisation, the cities are getting warmer than their rural surroundings. The temperature is rising mainly due to the highrises, roads and other infrastructure replacing open land and vegetation," the scientist said.
The scientist said, "Among other reasons pollution is definitely a factor. Apart from that carbon and dust particles in the air could also be one of reasons. And pollution is higher because in and around the city region there has been an increase of dust particles in the air."
On whether lightning has gone up in the hilly regions in the northeastern part of the country, Dr Pawar said, "It's not that high in Shillong or in the seven northeastern states because the hills still have a green coverage."