People Deaths and Injuries Caused by Lightning in Himalayan Region, Nepal

Abstract

Several natural disasters such as lightning, flood, fire, epidemics, and landslides frequently occur in the Himalayan region, of Nepal. The altitude of this region ranges from 59 m to “8848.86 m”—the height of Mount Everest—along with a distance of just 160 km. As a result, there is a considerable (i.e., nearly 95°C) variation in temperature in the region. Moreover, Nepal has a heterogeneous topography. All these features influence various natural disasters including lightning activity. This paper is aimed at analyzing the variations of lightning within and across the years from January 2011 to December 2021—a total of 11 years. For this, the data were taken from the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) portal of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA). The analysis showed that there were no lightning events in November, and the lightning density was higher in the premonsoon period of study in this region. It also showed that the number of injured people is about thrice the death of the people due to the lightning. The null occurrence of lightning in November in the Himalayan region is a contribution novel to this field.