Cyclone Biparjoy to hit coasts of Gujarat; IMD issues Orange alert

New Delhi: Biparjoy, a cyclone developed in Arabian Sea has intensified into an extremely dangerous cyclonic storm and is expected to hit the coasts of Gujarat, for which the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert. The coasts of Saurashtra and Kutch of Gujarat are under the observation of the weather department. NDRF(National Disaster Response Force) and SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund) teams are deployed to deal with the evacuation and rescue mission.

"Cyclone Alert for Saurashtra & Kutch Coast: Orange Message. ESCS BIPARJOY at 0530IST of today over Aeast central & adjoining NE Arabian Sea near lat 19.2N & long 67.7E, about 380km SSW of Devbhumi Dwarka. To cross near Jakhau Port, Gujarat by noon of June 15," the IM Department tweeted early Monday morning.

Officials in Kutch district have started shifting people from low-lying areas to temporary shelters. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Sunday visited the State Emergency Operation Center to review the preparedness of coastal districts to deal with any emergency situation.

According to the officials, the cyclone is very likely to move nearly northward till Wednesday morning, then move north-northeastwards and cross Saurashtra and Kutch and adjoining Pakistan coasts between Mandvi (Gujarat) and Karachi (Pakistan) near Jakhau Port (Gujarat) by Thursday noon as a very severe cyclonic storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 125-135 kmph gusting to 150 kmph.

There will be light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places very likely over Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Junagarh and Morbi districts of Saurashtra and Kutch on Wednesday, according to IMD’s further prediction.

"The intensity of rainfall would increase with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy falls at isolated places very likely over Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka and Jamnagar and heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places over Porbandar, Rajkot, Morbi and Junagarh districts of Gujarat on Thursday," said an IMD official.

"Isolated heavy rainfall is very likely over remaining districts of Saurashtra and north Gujarat region on Thursday, while light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places very likely over north Gujarat and adjoining south Rajasthan on Friday."

On Sunday, the IMD had also predicted that the heat wave is likely to persist in isolated pockets over Bihar, Jharkhand and Coastal Andhra Pradesh during the next five days.

Further, heat wave conditions are also expected to prevail over south Haryana-Delhi, south Uttar Pradesh, Gangetic West Bengal and Odisha from Sunday to Tuesday and over Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh and Telangana on Monday.

The cyclone was named Biparjoy by Bangladesh, which means "disaster" or "calamity" in Bengali. As per IMD website, the name was adopted by World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) countries in 2020 and pronounced Biporjoy.

With inputs from IANS