NEW DELHI: Lightning strikes killed 83 people across nearly two dozen districts in Bihar, the chief minister’s office said on Thursday.
Lightning and thunderstorms are common as the rainy season kicks off in India with the seasonal monsoon winds covering most of the country’s northern region.
Bihar has announced compensation of 400,000 rupees ($5,294.45) for the next of kin of each victim of the lightning strikes, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s office said in a statement, adding: “Stay at home in bad weather and stay safe.”
A government spokesman said so far there was no information on the number of injuries.
A change in meteorological patterns that has seen longer gaps of dry weather between bouts of torrential rain has made lightning strikes common, the Climate Resilient Observing Systems Promotion Council said in a report last year.
Bihar reported 225,508 instances of lightning strikes that killed 170 people between April 1 and July 31, 2019, it said.
