The National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday issued a notice to Odisha chief secretary and sought for action taken reports over frequent lightning fatalities in the coastal state.
The apex rights panel, which passed the order yesterday on a petition by human rights lawyer Radhakanta Tripathy, asked the Chief Secretary to ensure compliance of the action taken report to the Commission within six weeks.
Expressing concern over the spurt in lightning fatalities, the petition drew the attention of NHRC saying that the State accounted for 21 lightning deaths in August last.
Odisha has recorded 10,741 deaths due to lightning in the last five years, according to the data from the Climate Resilient Observing-Systems Promotion Council. However, in the Odisha Assembly the reply of the Revenue and Disaster Management minister stated that Odisha has recorded 1,625 deaths due to lightning between 2019 and 2024.
There are gaps in the reports. This needs to be seriously taken into consideration by the Authorities, the petition said.
Despite the severity of lightning strikes and rising human fatalities, the State is yet to develop any action plan. In India, only seven out of 36 states and Union territories have developed the action plans.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in its key policy document issued in 2019 had instructed States to prepare lightning action plans as per the guidelines on prevention and management of thunderstorms and lightning/squall, dust/hailstorm and strong winds.
The petition sought for formulation and implementation of Action Plan and hike in compensation to the family members of the lightning victims.
Lightning was declared as a State specific disaster from April 1, 2015. As per the revised norms, Rs 4 lakh per deceased is now being paid by the government as ex-gratia towards lightning victim’s families. Prior to 2015, ex-gratia was either being paid from chief minister’s relief fund or district gratuitous relief fund.