Daily Times

Dozens of people meet gruesome ends every year as climate change is making lethal strikes. As a reaction to climate change and localized heating of the Earth’s surface and more moisture, there is a sudden surge of massive lightning. The dramatic rise of lightning deaths is linked to our obnoxious enemy “The changing climate” causing substantial damage. Notwithstanding that the problem is worldwide, research anticipates a doubling of the average number of fulmination. Evidence insinuates thunder strokes are more common in countries-particular concern in developed countries like the US and South Africa however twice a bigger concern in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Malaysia.

Environmental changes, living patterns, and human activities are all constituents of the hike in casualties ascribed to thunderstorms. It appeared to be that serious killer in South Asia, claiming more lives annually than floods. Reported deaths and injuries due to lightning have soared greatly. Hundreds who survive bolts suffer from a variety of lasting symptoms. Lightning strikes also beget skin and heart complications such as cardiac arrest and skin burns.

Some known governments like Bangladesh have added lightning strikes to the official list of natural disasters the country faces- which includes floods, earthquakes, and droughts, keeping in consideration the seriousness. Bangladesh, which is blighted by extreme weather and heavy storms, suffers an average of 300 deaths by lightning every year, according to the UN.  The great misfortune- where 16 people in Bangladesh of a sole family met their end on the nuptials, whose day of celebrations, turned into a lifetime grief necessitates a pragmatic approach to combat the common assassin.

The majority of victims are poor farmers who are vulnerable as they work in open fields through the rainy monsoon months in summer and spring. Urbanization is augmenting, and farm households are diversifying their sources of income beyond agriculture. This relative decline in agriculture is inevitable in countries that experience economic growth, which has been widespread in the region. Nevertheless, a significant percentage of the economically active population is still involved in agriculture in South Asia, and agricultural employment is especially important not only for the livelihoods of the poor but self-defense.

This growing concern needs a warm console or significant reduction in the number of fatalities focusing on disparate initiatives. Scientists say warmer conditions associated with climate change are the cause of more water evaporation from the land and ocean, increasing cloud rainfall, and the potential for lightning storms. Naturally, deforestation has increased the mortality rate. However, Bangladesh has planted hundreds of thousands of palm trees in a bid to ease the brunt of environmental change and diminish the number of lightning deaths. A lack of awareness is also a challenge. Many in the country fail to comprehend how precarious lightning can be – few people anywhere in the world expect to be hit by a thunderbolt.

Research proposes that the Global South will endure the most from climate change and that South Asia will be one of the hardest-hit regions, predictions turned out to be realistic for this region. Climate change is expected to displace 62 million South Asian people by 2050, according to research from Action Aid International and Climate Action Network South Asia.

Needless to say, even among the most cooperative of countries, multilateral efforts to encounter climate change in terror of natural calamities are difficult because national leaders woe about sacrificing sovereignty, insincere international partners, and/or domestic backlashes. These intricacies are exacerbated in South Asia, arguably the least integrated and most geopolitically dysfunctional region in the world. But climate change is not a zero-sum game. It is the rare international political question on which India and Pakistan, not to mention Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, are — or should be — on the same side.

There is a lot to be gained by India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh involving regional power China, carving out a regional approach to climate change. Indeed, for many in South Asia, from government officials to development experts to journalists, there is a strong moral and economic argument for Western nations paying climate reparations to their countries. But for such a position to assume real geopolitical significance, South Asian leaders must band together and make the case in a unified and coherent way. It would be difficult for world powers to turn a deaf ear to two billion people speaking as one. Proceeding with a unit against the scourge will bolster the whole in attempts to grapple with climate challenges of a perilous nature.

The writer is an advocate High Court and a social activist.

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