A single lightning flash kill 18 elephants

Recently 18 elephants died on a hilltop in Assam. The preliminary post-mortem report indicates they had been struck by lightning.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2021

Lightning may injure or kill animals in a number of ways such as:

Direct Flash: An animal in an open field may be struck directly by lightning if part of its body protrudes over other objects in the vicinity. Taller animals are more vulnerable.

Side Flash: When lightning strikes a tall object such as a tree, it may generate a side flash that can strike an animal standing underneath the tree.

Touch Potential: If one part of a tall animal’s body is in contact with the ground while another part, at a higher elevation, comes in contact with a lightning-struck object, a partial current may pass through its body.

Step Potential: The most common lightning hazard among four-legged animals. When an animal’s front and hind feet are far enough apart, a partial current may pass through the body in certain circumstances.

The Bamuni Hill in Assam, where the elephants died, has no tall trees that could have taken the brunt of the lightning strike.

In 2007, five elephants were killed in a similar incident in Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal. In 2016, over 300 reindeer were killed on Norway’s Hardangervidda plateau following thunderstorms. In 1972, 53 reindeer were killed in a lightning strike in Alaska.