Madhya Pradesh: 7 dead in lightning strikes; IMD issues orange alert, asks 33 districts to 'be prepared' for heavy rains

Bhopal: The Met department on Monday issued an orange alert for heavy to very heavy rainfall in 33 of 52 districts in Madhya Pradesh, while lightning amid steady downpour claimed seven lives in the last 24 hours. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said very heavy rainfall in the 64.5 to 204.4 mm range was likely to lash 33 districts. It added that the orange alert, which asks officials to “be prepared”, is valid till Tuesday morning. As per the IMD statement, the 33 districts include Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, and Naramdapuram to name a few. An official from the revenue department said lightning strikes at various places killed seven persons in a 24-hour period ending at 2:30 pm on Monday, which took the statewide death toll from such incidents to 60 since 1 June. “The seven deaths in the last 24 hours comprised two in Mandla, and one each in Ashok Nagar, Datia, Guna, Narsinghpur and Narmadapurman,” the official added. IMD data showed Pachmarhi, the state’s lone hill station, received 103.2 mm of rainfall in a 24-hour period ending 8:30 am on Monday. It also showed that Raisen, Betul, Narmadapuram, Jabalpur, Chhindwara, Bhopal, Gwalior and Indore received 86.4 mm, 72.6 mm, 70.4 mm, 55.0 mm, 55.0 mm, 46.4 mm, 21.9 mm and 17.2 mm rainfall, respectively, during this period. “A low pressure area lying over Odisha is bringing moisture from the Bay of Bengal to MP. Besides, a cyclonic circulation over southern Pakistan is causing moisture incursion in MP from the Arabian Sea,” said Ved Prakash Singh, senior meteorologist at Bhopal meteorological centre. He added that a monsoon trough passing through Guna and Damoh was bringing moisture from both sides to the central and southern parts of the state, leading to rains. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.