'Lightning killed my family on my wedding day': Lightning deaths rise in Bangladesh

On the day he planned to celebrate his wedding, Mamun buried 16 of his relatives: they died from a lightning strike when they were on their way to the ceremony.

Dressed in their best saris and suits, the family had boarded a boat to meet Mamun. But suddenly a strong storm broke out. When the rain got worse, the boat stopped to take shelter under a metal shed on the river's edge.

Bangladesh, plagued by extreme weather and strong storms, suffers an average of 300 deaths a year from lightning strikes, according to United Nations data.

This figure contrasts with the less than 20 that occur annually in the United States, which has almost twice the population.

It is a worrying issue for the South Asian nation, and for many like Mamun, who is speaking for the first time about what happened that day in August 2021.

The 21-year-old was getting ready for the ceremony at his in-laws' house, in the Shibganj area, in the northwest of the country, when he heard the crack of thunder, minutes before receiving the heartbreaking news.

He ran to where his family was and found a scene of chaos and confusion.

“Some were hugging the corpses,” Mamun recalls, “the wounded were screaming in pain… the children were crying. I felt lost. I couldn't even decide who I should look at first.”

Mamun lost his father, grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts. His mother was not on the boat and she was saved from the lightning strike.

“When I found my father's body, I started crying. I was so shocked that I broke down,” says Mamun.

That same night the funerals of their relatives were held, and the wedding banquet they were going to enjoy was distributed among homeless people.

Mamun later married, but says he doesn't celebrate his wedding anniversary because it brings back painful memories.

“After the tragic incident, I am now very afraid of rain and thunder.”

Lightning is a leading cause of death in Bangladesh, claiming more lives each year than floods.

The number of recorded deaths from lightning has also risen sharply, from a few dozen a year in the 1990s.

NASA, the UN and the Bangladesh government attribute the increase in storms to climate change.

“Global warming, environmental changes and living patterns are factors that explain the increase in lightning deaths,” Md Mijanur Rahman, director general of Bangladesh's disaster management division, told the BBC.

Such is the severity that the government has added lightning to the official list of natural disasters facing the country, which includes floods, cyclones, earthquakes and droughts.

Most lightning victims are farmers, who are vulnerable to the elements while working the fields during the rainy spring and summer monsoon months.

Abdullah's death

A football shirt, hanging from a rickety fence overlooking a field in the Satkhira region of Bangladesh, is a poignant reminder of one of the victims.

Abdullah was wearing the shirt when he entered the extensive rice fields to carry out his workday.

Now, hanging over the wooden fence, the FC Barcelona football shirt is charred and frayed, the burned edges of the thread showing where the lightning strike that struck in May 2023 left its mark.

Rehana, Abdullah's partner for three decades, tells from the field what happened the day she lost her husband.

The day was sunny when her husband and a group of farmers went to harvest rice. Late in the afternoon a strong storm began and lightning struck the man.

“Some of the other farmers brought it to this shop,” Rehana says, pointing to a small hut on the road. “By then he was already dead.”

Back at Rehana's house, the rice Abdullah harvested a day earlier lies in fresh piles outside the small one-room dwelling.

The couple had recently taken out a loan to build a second room to expand their modest residence.

Inside, Masood, the couple's 14-year-old son, reads a book. Without a single source of income, Rehana fears she will be in debt for life and wonders how she will pay for her studies.

“The fear took hold of me so deeply that now, if I see a cloud in the sky, I no longer even dare to let my son out,” she says, consumed by tears.

What solutions are there?

Lightning is a growing concern in other countries as well, such as neighboring India, which has also seen an increase in the number of lightning strikes in recent years, although with a significant reduction in the number of fatalities thanks to a series of initiatives.

In Bangladesh, work is being done to reduce the number of deaths from lightning.

Activists say more tall trees need to be planted in remote rural areas to cushion the impact of discharges, especially in places most affected by deforestation.

They also call for a large-scale program to build lightning shelters.so that farmers can shelter safely, and broader early warning systems to warn the population of possible storms.

One of the problems is the poor connectivity and lack of mobile use in the most vulnerable areas.

Lack of awareness is also a problem. Many residents of the country do not realize how dangerous lightning can be: few people in the world expect to be struck by one.

“It was like a fire disk fell”

Farmer Ripon Hossen, who was with Abdullah the day he died, never imagined what it would be like to feel lightning close up until it happened to him.

“There was a big bang and then I saw a lot of flashing lights,” he remembers. “It was as if a disk of fire had fallen on us. I felt a great electric shock and fell to the ground,” she says.

“After a while, I opened my eyes and saw that Abdullah was dead.”

Ripon can't believe he survived. He says he is terrified of working outdoors, but in this impoverished rural area, agriculture is his only source of income.

“I cry every time I think of my friend Abdullah,” she confesses.

“When I close my eyes at night, all the memories of that day come back like a flashback. I find no solace.”

Additional reporting and images by Neha Sharma, Aamir Peerzada, Salman Saeed and Tarekuzzaman Shimul.

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