Lightning mitigation measure: Odisha asks Forest, Agriculture depts to plant palm trees

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has asked the Forest and Agriculture departments to take up massive palm tree plantation as an effective mitigation measure to avoid death of people due to lightning strike in rural areas.

The decision in this regard was taken at an inter-departmental meeting convened by Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Satyabrata Sahu.

“Inter-departmental meeting held by SRC for undertaking disaster resilient projects under Disaster Mitigation Fund. @ForestDeptt & @krushibibhag asked to take up massive Palm tree plantation in reserve forest area and other vulnerable districts as a #Lightning mitigation measures,” the SRC said in a post in X.

The SRC’s decision came in the wake of many people, mostly farmers losing their lives due to lightning strikes while working in agricultural fields. As many as 281 lightning deaths were reported in 2021-22, most of them from rural areas.

Stating that environmentalists and weather experts have opined that rampant felling of palm trees that gives protection against lightning, the SRC meeting resolved that it should go for planting palm trees in rural areas.

Uma Shankar Dash, a senior scientist at the Regional Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar said that palm trees which are taller than coconut trees often work as a shield against lightning.

“Lightning used to strike tall palm trees and as a result farmers were escaping from lightning strike while working in their farmlands,” Dash said, adding that the farmers now are hit by lightning strikes as they take shelter under trees during rain.

However, the SRC observed that people in rural areas were no longer planting palm trees after most of the houses became pucca in rural areas. Earlier, people used palm leaves and its log in house construction works.

Though the Forest department in 2018 had taken up an initiative to plant palm trees by encouraging farmers, the effort was not successful. Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Bijay Ketan Patnaik said that people are now not interested in planting palm trees as they require three to four years to grow.

However, a teacher from Odisha’s Kaptipada area in Mayurbhanj district, Santosh Sahu on his own has taken up a mission to plant palm trees in open spaces after realising that palm trees have a major role in mitigating lightning deaths in rural pockets.

Sahu said that he has been encouraging people to plant palm trees as they help reduce lightning deaths as well as maintain biodiversity.

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Meanwhile, the Odisha government has announced lightning as a state-specific disaster and provide Rs 4 lakh as ex-gratia to the families losing their relatives in lightning strikes.

“Many people are killed in lightning strikes in Odisha. If lightning is included in the list of natural disasters then the family members of the deceased will be able to get an increased ex-gratia amount as per the provisions of natural disasters,” said Odisha’s Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Pramila Mallik.

As many as 923 people have died due to lightning strikes in Odisha in a span of three years. While 351 people died due to lightning strikes in 2019-20, the number was 291 in 2020-21 and 281 in 2021-22, official sources said.

PTI