Bhubaneswar : Lightning strikes have killed at least 14 people in India’s mineral-rich eastern state of Jharkhand, police said, the latest deaths linked to annual monsoon rains that have triggered floods and landslides elsewhere.
Farm workers in open fields accounted for most of the 10 people killed in the state’s Giridih district, police said. At least seven others were injured in Tuesday’s lightning strikes, a common feature of monsoon thunderstorms.
India’s weather office forecast widespread rainfall across Jharkhand over the next few days on Wednesday.
More than 200 people died in Jharkhand in 2025, mainly from “lightning associated with thunderstorms”, the India Meteorological Department said in January.
This year’s torrential monsoon rains have caused severe flooding in India’s northeastern state of Assam, killing nearly 90 people, while 15 people have died in the southern state of Kerala, where thousands have been displaced from their homes.
