Warn Of Lightning Strike:
An average of seventy lives is lost to lightning strikes in Karnataka every year. Six hundred plus fatalities were reported in the last 9 years, including 19 in February, March. To protect people, infrastructure and livestock, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) and the revenue department on Friday released Sidilu. Sidilu is a phone app which gives position specific warnings to peoples on lightning and dangerous storms.
The app, which can download free of charge. Android and iOS users can download from Apple Store or Google Play. It will issue warnings to phone users forty-five minutes before the lightning strike or dangerous storms. An alarm in red will mean that the user is in risk zone as there will be 90 percent chance of a lightning strike within a 1 sqkm radius of the place. Similarly, orange will denote probable occurrence of the strike within the 5 sqkm radius and yellow in 15 sqkm. If the user sees green alert pops up on the screen then the user is safe.
KSNDMC Director:
KSNDMC director Srinivas Reddy said the app developed by Earth Networks. It is a United States based company, also contains dos. And don’ts to notify the people about measures which will help them secure themselves. He added “The company has installed ten sensors in many parts of the state to track lightning strikes. The project expense is Rs 50 lakh each year. The application is functioning in ninety countries, including those in Africa and the United States,”.
When asked about farmers who don’t own phones. Reddy said they have a database of phone numbers of twenty-eight lakh farmers. And the location-based lightning warnings will be distributed to them whenever KSNDMC receives alerts. “Text messages will be sent to administrators in departments. Like agriculture, revenue, horticulture and rural development and panchayat raj. Who also works at the hobli and village levels,” he added.
