Lighting Strikes

Over the weekend, reports that a herd of 36 cattle was struck down by lighting atop a scared hill only to be visited by royalty in Ifedore LGA of Ondo state. After a storm the cows were found dead, reports circulated the internet and the news has spread like wildfire. The incident allegedly took place after the herdsmen had been warned not to let their cattle graze on the hill however they did not heed the locals warning and let their cattle trample sacred crops and destroy farmlands while feeding. According to Ondo state police command, no human lives were lost as the cattle herders took cover once the storm began.

What went wrong?

There has been a ton of speculation on the topic with everyone voicing their opinion on what could possibly have caused the death of the herd. One of the most popular theories is that it is an act of God and the “gods” of the area were vetting out punishment on the cattle for desecrating their land however if the events are indeed true, a more logical theory is that what we are seeing is an effect of climate change and sporadic changes in the weather around the world.

A sacred act or climate change?
This is hardly the first time that animals would be struck by lighting in the recorded history of humanity, after all in 2016, a herd of reindeer was struck by lightning leaving all 300 of the animals dead on a mountain plateau in Hardangervidda, Norway. The bodies of the animals were spread over a 50-mile radius. Similarly, two giraffes were struck by lightning in May 2019 at a safari in Florida. Both of these events were recorded after a heavy storm with significant lighting activity and as animals tend to huddle together during a storm, it is more than likely that a single bolt of lightning struck the ground thus killing the entire herd of cattle.

These eerie events have occurred around the world in places that were not exactly sacred ground. A prime example is the death of 63 cows in south Australia in 2005 or the 1990 thunderstorm that took down 30 cows on a Virginia farm.

The death of the herd of cattle is more of an indication of the changes in the climate not just around the world but right here in Nigeria as well. World leaders have held several meetings to discuss what can be done to negate the effects of climate change and several policies have been put in place in some developed countries. While some other people and world leaders such as the president of the United States of America denying that there is anything to worry about concerning the world’s climate, These reoccurring strikes of lighting on unsheltered animals is indeed a sign that climate change is real and affects not just human beings but the entire ecosystem. Whether we like it or not, it’s time to act and do our bit as individuals and as a country to checkmate the effects of our carbon emissions on the environment.