According to the India Meteorological Department, Cyclone “Biparjoy” is expected to make landfall on Thursday afternoon near Jakhau port in Gujarat’s Kutch district as a “very severe cyclonic storm” with a top wind speed of 150 km/h.
Authorities in the coastal districts of Kutch, Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Junagadh, and Morbi started evacuating residents who lived close to the water, paused fishing operations, and raised warning signals at ports, according to officials.
“Near Jakhau port is where the cyclone Biparjoy is most likely to make landfall. On June 15, it will arrive on Gujarat’s coast around noon. Extremely severe rainfall and winds with gusts of up to 150 kmph may precede it, according to Manorama Mohanty, head of the IMD Ahmedabad centre.
Fishermen have been told not to enter the sea until June 16, she said, adding that a warning for heavy rains has been issued for the Saurashtra-Kutch and Gujarat regions from June 15 to 16.
According to officials, over 7,500 people have been relocated to safer areas, and a proper evacuation effort will start on Tuesday for residents of villages in the Kutch and Saurashtra districts that are less than 10 kilometres from the coast.
In Devbhumi Dwarka, more than 1,500 people were relocated to safer locations while more than 3,000 people were evacuated from 31 villages in Porbandar. they alerted.
“In Kandla, some 3,000 people were relocated, primarily fishermen and labourers employed at a port. The inhabitants of a few slums close to the shore have also relocated to Mandvi. From Tuesday, around 23,000 residents in communities within a 10-kilometer radius of the coast will be relocated to (temporary) shelter homes, according to Kutch collector Amit Arora.
In a tweet, the IMD said, “Cyclone Alert for Saurashtra and Kutch Coast: Orange Message. ESCS BIPARJOY lay at 0830 IST today, about 320km SW of Porbandar, 360km SSW of Devbhumi Dwarka, 440 km South of Jakhau Port, 440 km SSW of Naliya. To cross near Jakhau Port (Gujarat) by noon of 15th June as VSCS.”
Section 144 was implemented by Kutch district authorities in the coastal areas, closing all schools and colleges till June 15, according to officials.
On Monday morning, light rain fell in a few coastal districts in south and north Gujarat, including Valsad, Gir Somnath, Bhavnagar, and Amreli.
The administration was in contact with the Army, Navy, and Indian Coast Guard, according to officials, and teams from the National and State Disaster Response Forces were placed on standby in the impacted regions.
The cyclone was centred about 320 km southwest of Porbandar, 360 km south-southwest of Devbhumi Dwarka, 440 km south of Jakhau Port, 440 km south-southwest of Naliya, and 620 km south of Karachi (Pakistan), according to the IMD’s most recent bulletin released during the day.
The cyclone Biparjoy was expected to travel approximately northward till the morning of June 14 according to the met agency.
Fishermen have been warned to stay out of the central Arabian Sea until June 15, and the northern Arabian Sea until June 12. Warning signs have been erected along the coasts. The shoreline has been recommended to fishermen who are at sea.
The state administration has been ordered by the federal government to control onshore and offshore activity and organise evacuations from the coastal regions of Saurashtra and Kutch, including Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Junagadh, and Morbi.
The districts of Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, and Jamnagar have received warnings from the IMD for heavy to very heavy rainfall, with isolated extremely high rainfall, on June 15.
Some areas along the shore in other districts of the Saurashtra region will experience heavy to extremely severe rains. It also predicted that isolated areas in north Gujarat districts would experience significant rains.
The IMD has also stated that during the period of landfall, a storm surge of approximately 2 to 3 m above the astronomical tide is likely to inundate the low lying regions of the aforementioned districts, and wind speeds may reach up to 190 kmph in the sea.
When the cyclone makes landfall in the Saurashtra Kutch region on June 15, the met department has issued warnings of wind speeds of up to 120-130 kmph with gusts to 145 kmph.
According to the forecast, sea conditions are expected to be rough to extremely difficult until Wednesday evening and then high to phenomenal until noon on June 15 before getting better.
Read Also: Cyclone Biparjoy: Fishing Stopped Along The Guj Coast
