==== Front ScientificWorldJournal ScientificWorldJournal tswj The Scientific World Journal 2356-6140 1537-744X Hindawi 10.1155/2023/1888382 Research Article The Report of Lightning in Himalayan Locale https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8848-0667 Adhikari Pitri Bhakta pbadhikari09@gmail.com Tri-Chandra Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal Academic Editor: Maria Ioannides 2023 22 6 2023 2023 188838224 11 2022 9 1 2023 3 2 2023 Copyright © 2023 Pitri Bhakta Adhikari. 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A few normal calamities (disasters) as often as possible happen within the Himalayan locale in Nepal. The height of this locale ranges from 59 m to “8848.86 m” along the range of 160 km. As a result, there is a significant variety of temperatures within the locale. In addition, Nepal includes a heterogeneous geography. All these highlights impact different normal fiascos counting the lightning action. This report points at analyzing the varieties of lightning inside and over a long time from January 2011 to present. For this report, the information was taken from the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) portal of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA). The investigation indicated that there was no lightning occasion in November, and the lightning stroke density was higher in the premonsoon period, and the number of harmed individuals was almost three times the number of individuals passing due to the lightning. ==== Body pmc1. Introduction The nation of the Mount Everest, Nepal, lies on the north side of the equator of scope 26.37°N to 30.45°N and longitude 80.066°E to 88.2°E in a Himalayan locale. In the Himalayan regions, there are different cloud structures [1–3], and the lightning and its effects are explained in [4–7]. The height of the nation ranges heterogeneously from 59 m to 8848.86 m. The arrival of the least elevation which of the most elevated height (Mount Everest) lies inside the range of 160 km, and the temperature difference is around 95°C. Due to the variety of temperatures in a short range, there are differing qualities of climate and the variety of climate marvels [8]. Water actually streams from tall elevation to low elevation with high speed due to the tremendous contrast of height in a short range. This leads to the occurrence of significant disasters which comes about the misfortune of human lives and cattle with the annihilation of physical properties of billions of dollars [9]. Other than human casualties, the death of cattle was also reported and modern parts of electronic, military, and restorative medical equipment can be destroyed. Besides this, the communication and transmission lines are affected by radiation produced due to lightning. Gomes et al. [10] clarified that the passing or harm of the individuals depends upon the different variables. These variables may be the distance of the lightning, step potential, current magnitudes, temperature during lightning, and so on. They also detailed that the lightning causes harm to the human creatures and household creatures, when they are in open land-fields, and do not take shelter under the tall trees during the lightning. Gomes [11] detailed that lightning is taken as a calamity since the topographical situation within the context of Sri Lanka within the hilly locale and casualty of individual people are not detailed precisely due to the scattered data on the Himalayan locale. Baral and Mackerras [12] detailed that more positive lightning occurs within the slope hill and precipitous mountainous locale. Uman [13] and Rakov and Uman [14] clarified that the marvels happen due to high current 300 kA and high temperature up to 30,000 K. 2. Methodology In this research report, the data were taken from the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) portal of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) from January, 2011, to December, 2021, and were analyzed in terms of their inter- and intra-annual variations and their distribution over the hill and mountainous locale in Nepal. 3. Observation and Discussion Nepal has one of the most elevated chances of disaster due to its topographical structure. The northern upper portion of Nepal incorporates the rough hilly district secured by the tall Himalayas, the lower southern portion comprises plain Terai, and the uneven district lies in between the two. Floods, landslides, avalanches, thunderbolts, electrical storms, and fires happen regularly as a disaster [9]. Within the Himalayan district, more than 250 creatures were killed due to a single stroke of the lightning [15]. The phenomenon of lightning in this geological structure is exceptionally critical. As specified prior, the current and temperature are very significant factors for the process of lightning. The death of human creature due to lightning in Nepal is presented in Figure 1. The number of occurrences and number of passing and harmed individuals due to lightning in twelve months were observed and analyzed here and are presented in Table 1. The bar graph of the month-to-month distribution of lightning during this era is shown in Figure 2. In Figure 2, the number of incidents and the number of passing and harmed individuals because of lightning occasions communicated month to month and these conveyances of lightning were observed and analyzed. There are no lightning occasions in November, and therefore, the maximum number of lightning incidents happens in the premonsoon period. In addition, the number of harmed individuals is almost 3 times above the number of passing individuals. The seventy-seven districts are taken into account as a sample area for the distribution of the lightning occasions. The information available on the DRR portal of seventy-seven districts in Nepal was analyzed by using ArcGIS software. The investigated zone is categorized into three locales, namely, Terai, mountain, and Himalayan. Terai lies beneath 600 m from the ocean level and the high Himalayan locale lies at an altitude of over 5000 m. The center part between them is called hilly or mountainous locale, which is the highly affected area because of lightning as shown in Figure 3. The fatality and harmed individual rate over this area are significantly high because of the higher population density and lightning flash density. To determine the effect of electrical storms, the occurrences of lightning incident events, death of the people, and harmed individuals due to lightning were observed and analyzed. By utilizing the software program ArcMap, the presentation of passed individuals and harmed people was analyzed. The occurrence of lightning events is shown in the pie diagram inside the map of Nepal, and the size of the pie diagram varies with the number of lightning events, as shown in Figure 4. Similarly, the incident of the lightning events and also the death of the people within the seventy-seven districts are presented in Figure 5 by using the software program of ArcGIS mapping. Again, among all the 77 districts of Nepal, only the lightning occasion happened in the most extreme 25 districts which are displayed in the chart in Figure 6. During this period, Makawanpur district showed the greatest harm caused, followed by Jhapa district. But in contrast, in the same time period, there were no lightning occurrences in Manang and Mustang districts according to the DRR portal. The minimum number of lightning incidents due to the low population density at the place of tall elevation is shown in Figure 7. 4. Results and Discussion On the basis of casualty of the people passing and harmed, loss of cattle, causing fires in gigantic wilderness, and unwittingly harming TVs, computers, radios, phones, fridges, electronics gazettes, various equipment, medical equipment, causing fires in buildings due to high voltage, etc., the lightning can be taken as one of the major disasters. The distribution of the lightning incidents showed that the number of harmed people is thrice that of the number of passed people and the harmed people are as high in the premonsoon period as the dead people. Figure 8(a) represents the annual distribution of lightning and Figure 8(b) represents the monthly distribution of lightning. There are no lightning incidents in the month of November, and the maximum number of lightning incidents occurs during the premonsoon period. During the premonsoon period of April, May, and June, the maximum number of lightning incidents occurred and casualties were also high in the same period, as shown in Figure 8. 5. Conclusion Lightning is the main disaster in hilly locales due to the topographical features. It influences the environment of this region, and different temperatures occur in the short range. The month-to-month and annual distributions of lightning were observed and analyzed. There are no lightning incidents in the month of November during the research period, and the maximum number of lightning incidents occurs during the premonsoon period. It occurred in the months of April, May, and June in the premonsoon period, and the casualties were also high in the same period. The distribution of the lightning phenomena in seventy-seven districts of Nepal is observed and analyzed on the basis of the data available on the DRR portal. To be safe from lightning disasters, the research on lightning activity is very essential that really helps minimize the risk of disaster. Hence, it is recommended to the concerned authority to conduct an awareness program for the various people such as school children, population of mountainous regions, farmers, local people, and local government to diminish the risk of lightning. Acknowledgments The author would like to thank MOHA for providing the DRR portal data for this research and would also like to thank the Tri-Chandra Multiple College, Tribhuvan University, to carry out this research. Data Availability The data can be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Conflicts of Interest The author declares that there are no conflicts of interest. Figure 1 The bar diagram of the annual distribution of lightning. Figure 2 The bar diagram of the monthly distribution of the lightning during this period. Figure 3 Three different locales, Terai, mountain, and Himalayan, the investigated zone of Nepal. Figure 4 The proportionate presentation of fatalities and injured individuals. The size of each pie chart corresponds to the number of lightning incidents. Figure 5 The occurrence of lightning incidents (a) and the number of deaths resulting from these incidents (b). Figure 6 District-wise maximum number of lightning incidents during this period. Figure 7 District-wise minimum number of lightning incidents during this period. Figure 8 The annual (a) and monthly distribution (b) of the lightning incidents. Table 1 The monthly distribution of lightning of the latest eleven years. Year No. of events 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Total January Incident — 3 7 1 2 — — 0 23 11 1 48 Death — 2 5 0 1 — — 0 5 1 0 14 Harmed — 10 16 1 2 — — 0 46 8 0 83 February Incident — 9 14 6 21 2 0 4 47 18 10 131 Death — 2 13 0 10 2 0 0 9 6 2 44 Harmed — 27 15 15 37 — 0 24 57 8 11 194 March Incident — 6 26 12 24 15 23 32 21 45 18 222 Death — 3 20 3 14 10 2 14 2 4 4 76 Harmed — 18 74 15 13 18 33 31 29 44 20 295 April Incident 11 51 51 17 21 13 37 62 56 69 63 451 Death 5 22 25 7 17 5 21 24 15 14 13 168 Harmed 9 102 80 25 22 26 45 66 110 100 41 626 May Incident 23 30 17 40 27 50 65 32 51 46 38 419 Death 15 27 12 26 21 26 25 11 9 15 8 195 Harmed 31 50 23 45 54 43 96 46 56 45 47 536 June Incident 19 21 37 48 25 51 19 58 54 32 31 395 Death 14 20 28 28 22 32 10 17 24 17 13 203 Harmed 19 21 28 64 18 68 24 72 45 27 29 415 July Incident 22 26 14 9 10 2 16 19 40 23 8 189 Death 13 12 11 4 5 2 11 6 11 7 4 86 Harmed 22 10 8 19 5 6 17 14 31 26 2 160 August Incident 9 30 25 9 6 40 12 3 50 23 5 212 Death 5 16 18 4 5 17 7 0 13 7 4 96 Harmed 19 12 24 3 13 43 21 8 47 24 6 220 September Incident 25 19 19 25 3 25 11 30 29 35 30 251 Death 17 12 13 18 2 18 9 3 4 11 6 113 Harmed 21 17 16 34 — 31 8 31 26 23 33 240 October Incident 11 2 2 5 9 8 5 2 12 3 4 63 Death 7 2 1 4 6 6 0 0 2 0 1 29 Harmed 17 — 2 4 23 5 7 5 4 5 4 76 November Incident — — — — — — — — — — — — Death — — — — — — — — — — — — Harmed — — — — — — — — — — — — December Incident — — 1 5 — — — 2 — — — 8 Death — — 1 3 — — — 0 — — — 4 Harmed — — — 1 — — — 3 — — — 4 Total Incident 120 210 213 177 148 206 188 244 383 305 208 2402 Death 76 118 147 97 103 118 85 75 94 82 55 1050 Harmed 138 267 286 227 187 240 251 300 451 310 193 2850 ==== Refs 1 Williams E. 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