LIGHTENING KILL TOO MANY

Many people die all over the world due to lightening. It is a natural phenomenon. Lightening is an electrical discharge caused by imbalances between storm clouds and the ground or within the cloud themselves. World's highest rate of lightening take place in Venezuela. Catatumbo river that feeds the Maracaibo lake is the region in Venezuela where maximum lightening happens per square km in the world. Lightening flashes several times per minute here. Massive thunderstorms occur here at an average rate of 140-160 nights per year.  An average of 28 lightening strikes take place per minute lasting upto 10 hours at a time. After that Malaysia has one of the highest rate of lightening activity followed by Indonesia and Columbia.

According to National Geographic about 2,40,000 lightening strikes occur globally and about 2,000 people die every year. Mexico with 223, Thailand with 171, South Africa 150, Brazil 132 and Romania 75 are the 'top countries'  where death due to lightening occur every year.

As per the Second Annual Lightening Report, lightening strike killed 1619 people between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021 in India. According to National Crime Records Bureau 42,500 people were killed in India by lightening strikes between 2001 and 2018. An average of 2,360 people die in India every year by lightening strikes.

Each lightening strike can force about fifty thousand amps of current into a battery in less than a micro second time. Unfortunately such battery could not be made  so far. In other words, each bolt can contain up to one billion volts of electricity. It  may not impossible to create lightening at our choice and create electricity from it. Children or grand children of today's children may say more about this.

K V George