Govt mulls mechanism to directly alert common people about lightning strikes

Kolkata: The state government is taking initiatives to ensure that lightning alert reaches common people directly in the grassroot level.

It may be mentioned that the state Disaster Management and Civil Defence department has introduced a state-of-the-art technology in early 2018 that predicts lightning and information gets disseminated 45 minutes before it strikes.

But at present, the information gets disseminated only among concerned officials of all ranks, including the district authorities. In districts, representatives of Gram Panchayats also get the messages in this regard.

Now, in a bid to make the system more effective, the necessity of a mechanism has been felt so that the lightning alert messages reach common people in the grassroot level as well and they can go to a safe place.

Explaining the situation, a state government official said that the system that was developed in collaboration with an expert company from USA, can send out an alert 45 minutes before the possibility of lightning in a particular block.

Immediately, the messages get disseminated among the concerned officials up to the Gram Panchayat level and then the officials in districts take initiative to pass the same to the masses.

"But it will be more effective if the same message can reach common people directly in the form of SMS, etc." the official said, adding that there was a meeting in this regard with concerned agencies a few days ago.

The messages have to be sent specifically only to those who reside in the block where there is possibility of lightning and the matter has been discussed in the meeting to find a way out. There will be further meetings in this connection.

It may be mentioned that 294 people were killed due to lightning in 2016-17. It may be mentioned that lightning has claimed lives in the last monsoon as well. But, introduction of the mechanism to generate alert message 45 minutes before lightning strikes a particular area, has helped to make many people aware of the same in the last monsoon, helping them get to safety in time.