At least 69 people have died following a series of unusually severe thunderstorms that battered India’s eastern Bihar state and neighbouring Nepal this week, officials confirmed on Saturday.
The storms, accompanied by intense lightning strikes, swept through the region on Thursday and Friday, leaving a trail of devastation.
Lightning and flash floods claim thousands of lives annually in South Asia, but scientists have increasingly linked such extreme weather events to rising global temperatures.
Bihar’s disaster management department said on Saturday that at least 61 people had died across the state due to heavy thunder and lightning.
In neighbouring Nepal, officials reported that eight people were killed in separate lightning incidents on Wednesday and Thursday.
Meteorologists have warned that more heavy rainfall is expected to hit Bihar on Saturday, further raising concerns for vulnerable communities.
In a report last year, climate experts cautioned that India is witnessing a sharp rise in lightning-related fatalities, attributing it to climate change. The country now records nearly 1,900 lightning deaths annually, according to recent estimates.
Between 1967 and 2020, lightning strikes were responsible for 101,309 deaths in India.
Researchers from Fakir Mohan University in Odisha noted a significant surge in lightning-related fatalities between 2010 and 2020, underscoring the growing threat of extreme weather in the region.
