UP thunderstorms: Death toll rises to 117; Yogi govt announces Rs 4 lakh compensation

NEW DELHI: At least 117 people have lost their lives across Uttar Pradesh after relentless rain, lightning and thunderstorms battered several parts of the state over the past 36 to 48 hours. The incident has prompted the Uttar Pradesh government to announce compensation of Rs 4 lakh each for the families of the deceased.Uttar Pradesh Relief Commissioner Harikesh Bhaskar on Thursday said continuous monitoring was underway and the 24-hour Integrated Control and Command Centre remained fully operational amid the worsening weather situation.According to officials, reports of deaths, livestock losses and damage to houses have emerged from at least 19 districts including Barabanki, Bahraich, Kanpur Dehat, Basti, Sambhal, Hardoi and Unnao.Authorities said around 130 livestock animals have also died while nearly 98 houses suffered damage due to the severe weather conditions.Earlier in the day, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials to immediately visit affected areas, provide relief assistance to victims and ensure speedy compensation disbursal.He also instructed all District Magistrates to prioritise rescue and relief operations and ordered districts to submit situation updates every three hours.According to officials, compensation disbursal, rescue operations and other relief measures are also being monitored through social media updates and field inspections.Meanwhile, Union Minister Jitendra Singh launched two advanced weather forecasting systems developed under the Ministry of Earth Sciences aimed at improving hyper-local and AI-enabled weather prediction services across the country.The systems include the Meteorological Department's first Artificial Intelligence-enabled monsoon forecast model and a high-resolution rainfall forecast system for Uttar Pradesh capable of predicting rainfall at 1-km spatial resolution up to 10 days in advance.Officials said the new systems integrate data from automatic rain gauges, weather stations, Doppler radars and satellite-based rainfall datasets using AI-driven forecasting techniques to improve early warnings amid increasing extreme weather events.