Killer from the skies, beyond our control

Last week, nearly two dozen people were killed after being struck by lightning in Andhra Pradesh. Of deaths by natural causes, lightning is one of the biggest killers in India. On an average, it kills 1,500 people every year.

According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, in 2014, lightning led to 2,582 deaths or 12.8 per cent of the 20,201 accidental deaths caused by 'forces of nature'. Madhya Pradesh (406) recorded the most deaths by lightning, followed by Maharashtra (324), Odisha (289), Jharkhand (189), Bihar and Chhattisgarh (188 each) and West Bengal (180). All 65 accidental deaths from natural causes in Tamil Nadu were because of lightning.

The year 2013 saw 2,833 deaths because of lightning, the highest since NCRB started keeping a record of such data in 1967