Gulab Bheel, 44, was working on his land in the village of Ukraro, Tharparkar when heavy clouds started gathering towards the east. Loud claps of thunder accompanied by flashes of lightning dominated the horizon. In a beeline, Gulab and nine of his family members hastily started walking back home; each carrying a branch of crown flower over their head.

Locally known as ‘Auk’, the flower has become a common sight in the Thar desert in recent years, especially during the monsoon season.

Legend has it that Kans, the king of Mathura — the birth city of the Hindu deity Lord Krishna — was told that he would be killed by the eighth child of his sister Devki. Scared, Kans imprisoned his sister and her husband Vashdev for life. Each time Devki gave birth to a child, the king would kill it.

At the time of the birth of her eighth child — Lord Krishna — Devki exchanged her baby with that of her friend, a girl, doing so with the help of divine powers so that no one but them knew what had happened. When Kans found out about the baby girl, he hit her with an ‘Auk’ branch with the intention of murder.

According to Hindu mythology, the infant did not die, but floated up high into the sky and became the “light”. It is now believed that the baby — goddess Yogamaya — possesses the power of lightning, but never strikes the crown flower. Hindus in Thar believe the plant guards them from lightning strikes that have drastically increased in the past few years.

However, even the crown flower could not protect Gulab from what awaited him on the fateful day of July 29.

‘A mad wolf’

The 44-year-old recalled that he was passing under a tree with his family when he felt a storm brewing above his head. “I don’t know what happened afterwards,” he said. When Gulab regained consciousness, he was at the Nagarparkar taluka hospital.

Gulab’s world came tumbling down when he learned that a lightning strike had hit his family, killing his 16-year-old daughter Sugna, seven-year-old son Vikram, brother Bhamro and niece Anita. “My daughter was carrying my son who was born after five daughters and countless manats [prayers],” he cried.

“The tree under which we were passing was also dead … this proves that she [Devi Yogamaya] does not spare anyone or anything,” he added.

Fifteen minutes after striking Gulab and his family, the lightning reached five young men — all between the ages of 13 and 20. While two of them were quick to find safety under a nearby makeshift hut, Ranjeet and Ramesh failed to make it out alive. “It was like someone hit me in the head,” recalled the fifth man, Neebraj, who was critically injured.

Among the casualties were also seven cows.

Residents of the Ukraro village relayed that they witnessed over 100 instances of lightning strikes within half an hour that day. They struck within a radius of 1.5-2 square kilometres, described as a “mad wolf running here and there”.

Until some years ago, lightning strikes were a rare strike in Thar. “But for the past couple of years, these incidents have dramatically risen, with one reported every other day,” Gulab said. He attributed the increase to “coal mining and power generation” in the Thar desert.

Lightning and coal mining

According to research conducted by Prem Sagar at the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Tharparkar experiences an estimated annual average of 100,000 lightning strikes, while the global average is just 25,000.

Another study carried out by the Policy Research Institute for Equitable Development (PRIED), found that 87 human casualties were recorded between 2019 and 2024 during 46 lightning incidents — 19 of which were reported during winter season and the remaining during the monsoon month of July — in Thar. It added that 326 animals were also reported dead or injured including goats, sheep, camels and cows.

As per the report, these incidents were reported in Nagarparkar, Chachro and Diplo tehsils. But it was Islamkot that emerged to be a hotspot for lightning strikes. Interestingly, the Islamkot tehsil is located at a distance of 15-18km and 26-28km from the Thar Coal Block-1 and Block-2 mining and power plant sites, respectively.

While there is no research conducted in Pakistan regarding the correlation between coal mining and lightning, a 2013 study titled, ‘Enhanced cloud-to-ground lightning frequency in the vicinity of coal plants and highways in Northern Georgia, USA’, found that there was a threefold increase in lightning occurrences near coal plants and highways. It further showed that lightning amplification has been detected in areas with enhanced aerosol — small particles suspended in the atmosphere — concentrations.

“Coal-burning power plants are a leading source of a large collection of aerosols, including cloud-activating aerosols,” it said, adding that the enhancement of lightning near coal plants extends to distances exceeding 100km.

The changing face of Thar

Tharparkar, Pakistan’s largest desert, is home to 1.7 million people and 7m livestock. About 45 per cent of its total area contains reserves of brown coal, which are divided into 13 blocks. Currently, Block 1 and Block 2 are producing 2,620 megawatt electricity and contributing to the national grid.

A lot has changed in Thar ever since coal mining began in the desert in 2015. New roads and communication networks have been developed in the last decade. But for the people of Thar, the last 10 years have only ignited their concerns — from pollution to worsening groundwater quality and lightning incidents.

After the Ukraro incident in July, Tharparkar District Council Chairman Dr Ghulam Hyder Samejo invited a team of experts from the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology to the desert for a probe into the causes of lightning strikes.

The team’s head, Dr Zubair Memon, said they had submitted a report to the vice-chancellor, adding that a detailed study was recommended to ascertain the increases in lightning. When asked about the causes of the same, he stated that climate change was the leading force behind changing weather patterns.

However, it was premature to link these lightning incidents to either climate change or coal mining since it required detailed research, Dr Memon added.

The people of Thar have also urged the government to hire fulminologists to conduct a thorough research into the rising incidence of lightning strikes. At a moot organised in August last year, Comrade Nandlal Malhi, convener of the Thar Action Forum, said that the lightning strikes had created terror among Tharis and forced them to remain indoors. “

“Tharis, who are completely dependent on rainfalls, used to eagerly await rains but now they have started getting scared of the blessing due to inexplicable rise in the strikes of thunderbolts and subsequent deaths of humans as well as their livestock,” he said.

Relying on myths

Meanwhile, Gulab and Neebraj have been struggling to recover from the grief of losing their family members and the injuries they sustained. Still on medication, Neebraj complained of developing eyesight problems while Gulab suffers from stomach aches.

A few local politicians and representatives visited them to offer condolences, but no compensation for their losses has been announced by the government yet. “They can compensate for our material loss but how will they compensate for human lives?” said Gulab.

The 44-year-old’s brother, who was killed by the lightning strike, has left behind a widow and five sons, with the eldest aged 15. “He was the only breadwinner of the family,” said Samjhu, Bhamro’s wife.

She recounted that they had just arrived from the barrage area, in the hope of ploughing their land after rains. “What do I say to my kids now who are crying out for their father? Where are they supposed to go?”

In Thar, where water is scarce and droughts hit every few years, residents make long journeys in search of water and pasture. But rain, once the main source of their livelihoods and a blessing, has now become a monster that everyone fears.

After July 29, the people of Ukraro locked themselves up in their homes. They are now hesitant to leave the safety of their tiny abodes and venture into the fields or tend to their crops, which affects their socio-economic well-being.

Those who are courageous enough to step out keep a branch of the crown flower close to them, forced to rely on folklore and mythology in the absence of government action. But scepticism has now seeped even into devout hearts.

“We have carried six bodies in a day … you can’t imagine the pain we feel,” said a villager. “It is now better to live without rain than bear more losses.”

Header illustration created with generative AI

All photos by author