Based on the fact that an explosion of the Tinguska cosmic body, which caused trees to fall over a wide area, and radiant energy release during the Tunguska disaster were separated in space and in time, it is proposed that these events are interrelated but of different origin. We propose that the emission during the Tunguska disaster was caused by an atmospheric discharge at altitudes of 10-90 km above the Earth's surface. We propose these separate but interrelated events as an explanation for the Tunguska cosmic body destruction mechanism over the epicenter.