With the aim to protect people from lightning strikes which claim hundreds of lives every year, the Yogi Adityanath government is going to install lightning arresters, or lightning rods, atop tall buildings.
The lightning rods attract lightning from the sky in bad weather and send it underground, thus saving lives and preventing damage.
Recently, Relief Commissioner GS Naveen Kumar talked about the benefits of lightning arresters in front of Chief Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra. He informed that in 2022-23, 301 people had died due to lightning strikes in 52 districts whereas 174 lives had been lost due to lightning in 36 districts in 2023-24 till July.
He added that earlier a lot of people died due to lightning in districts like Sonbhadra, but now districts like Ghazipur are the most affected.
“In this situation, we have sought reports from districts as to where this lightning rod can be installed. According to the proposal, lightning arresters or lightning rods can be installed on the tallest buildings.”
It may be mentioned that a lightning rod or lightning conductor is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from lightning strike. If lightning strikes a structure, then it will directly strike the rod instead of passing through the structure, and the rod will conduct it through a wire into the ground, preventing damage to the structure. This can stop lightning from striking anywhere, preventing numerous fatalities from occurring.
When lightning strikes, it creates a large electromagnetic field that can induce high voltages in nearby conductive materials such as electrical wires and pipelines. This high voltage can damage the structure and potentially harm the people present inside and around. A lightning arrester or lightning rod provides a low-resistance path for the flow of lightning away from the structure and into the ground. It prevents damage and also protects people inside or around the structure from electric shock.