落雷による死者急増 気候変動が引き金　インド

【ジャイプールＡＦＰ＝時事】４００年前に建造されたインド西部ラジャスタン州の城塞（じょうさい）に登り自撮りをしていたファイズディンさん（２１）一行は雷の直撃を受け、友人３人が亡くなった。インドでは、気候変動の影響で落雷による死亡事故はまれなことではなくなっている。（写真は資料写真）
　ファイズディンさんは「次から次へと、雷に３回打たれた」と、州都ジャイプールの自宅でＡＦＰに語った。
　ファイズディンさんと幼なじみ３人は７月、嵐の中、アンベール城の要塞（ようさい）の見張り塔に登っていた。この時の落雷により他に８人が亡くなっている。
　「耳をつんざくほどの音がして、大爆発が起きたようだった。ズボンと靴に火が付き、手足がこわばり、動けなくなった」と話した。今でも頭に長く深い傷痕が残っている。
　インド政府の統計によると、毎年約２５００人が落雷で死亡している。
　牛などの動物が犠牲となることもある。北東部アッサム州では５月、落雷によりゾウ１８頭が死んだ。

■前年比３割増
　落雷の頻度は増している。今年３月までの１年間の発生件数は前年比３割増の１９００万回近くに上った。
　雷に関するデータを集計している数少ない団体「ライトニング・レジリエント・インド・キャンペーン」のサンジャイ・スリバスタバ氏は、「気候変動と地表面の局地的な気温上昇、湿度の上昇により雷が急増している」と、ＡＦＰに述べた。
　落雷の増加は世界的に問題となっている。今年公表された研究結果では、北極圏の平均落雷件数が今世紀中に倍増すると予測されている。
　落雷によってツンドラ地帯で広範囲にわたる火災が引き起こされる結果、永久凍土に閉じ込められている大量の炭素が大気中に放出され、地球温暖化が加速する可能性がある。
　都市部でも落雷が増えていることを示す証拠もあり、今後数年で都市部の人口が急増すると予測されているインドでは、特に懸念されている。

■「空からきた悪魔」
　１３億人の人口を抱えるインドは、落雷の増加という脅威への対応は急務だ。
　スリバスタバ氏は、雷雨による人的被害の多くは未然に防げるが、避雷針が設置された建物は国内にはほとんどないと指摘する。
　雷の危険性や、雷に遭遇した場合は木の下や開けた場所は避けるといった身を守る方法を知らない人も多い。
　アンベール城塞の事故で２０歳の息子を亡くしたモハメッド・シャミムさんは「もし雷の怖さを知っていれば…死傷の恐れもあると分かっていれば、絶対に家から息子を出さなかった」と悔やんだ。
　「息子はあの日、新品のシャツを着ていて、ただいい写真を撮りたかっただけだ。空から悪魔がやってきて、息子を連れ去ってしまった」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/10/11-12:54）

Faizuddin is still traumatised from the lightning strike that killed his three friends as they took selfies atop a 400-year-old fort in India, where climate change is making lethal strikes more common.
Scores of people have met similarly gruesome ends this year in the western desert state of Rajasthan, where deaths caused by thunderstorms used to be uncommon.
I was hit by three thunderbolts, one after the other, said Faizuddin, his voice quivering as he lay wrapped in a blanket at his modest home in Jaipur.
He and his trio of childhood friends had climbed hundreds of steps to a watchtower on top of Amer Fort during a July storm that also claimed eight other lives.
The sound was deafening, it felt like a huge bomb blast. My trousers and shoes caught fire, my limbs became stiff and I couldn't move, the 21-year-old told AFP, a deep gash still on his head.
Around 2,500 people die in lightning strikes around India each year, according to government figures, compared to just 45 in the United States.
Cattle and other animals are often killed or maimed during severe thunderstorms, with one burst of lightning in northeastern Assam state wiping out a herd of 18 elephants in May.
Thunderbolts contain as much as a billion volts of electricity and can cause immense damage to buildings when they hit.
Earlier this year at another fort in Chittorgarh, a few hours south of where Faizuddin's friends died, a bolt struck a tower and sent a huge chunk of stone plummeting to the ground.
The site was fitted with a rod to draw lightning away from the centuries-old structure but it proved to be ineffective, said Ratan Jitarwal, a conservator supervising the fort's painstaking repair work.
- 'A sudden surge' -
Lightning is also becoming more frequent, with nearly 19 million recorded strikes in the 12 months to March -- up by a third from the previous year.
Global warming is driving the increase, says Sanjay Srivastava of the Lightning Resilient India Campaign, one of the few organisations collecting data on thunderstorms.
Because of climate change and localised heating of the Earth's surface, and more moisture, there is a sudden surge of huge lightning, he told AFP.
The problem is worldwide, with research this year forecasting a possible doubling of the average number of lightning strikes inside the Arctic Circle over this century.
This could spark widespread tundra fires and trigger massive amounts of carbon stored within the permafrost escaping into the atmosphere, exacerbating global warming.
Evidence suggests lightning strikes are also becoming more common in urban areas -- a particular concern in India, where the city population is forecast to rise dramatically in the coming years.
Srivastava said the results could be catastrophic if, for example, a strike hit a hospital and shorted out equipment used to keep patients on life support in intensive care.
- 'Devil came from the sky' -
As with rising sea levels, the growing frequency of deadly heatwaves and other consequences of climate change, the country of 1.3 billion people is struggling to adapt to the threat of worse lightning strikes.
Most human deaths in thunderstorms are preventable but almost no buildings have lightning rods to protect their inhabitants, Srivastava said.
Forecasting is also tricky and warning people of approaching storms is difficult.
Indian scientists recently developed a mobile app that seeks to provide real-time warnings about imminent strikes and precautions to be taken.
But this has limited use in a country where only half the population has access to a smartphone, and even fewer in rural areas where strikes are more common.
Many people are also unaware of the dangers and what to do -- like not to shelter under a tree and avoiding open areas -- in a thunderstorm.
Had we known that lightning strikes... can kill and maim, we would have never allowed our son to step out of the house, said Mohammed Shamim, whose 20-year-old son died in the Amer Fort incident.
He had worn a new shirt that day and all he wanted was to take some nice shots on his phone. But it feels as if some devil came from the sky and took our son away.