According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials, authorities will begin evacuating residents of villages within 10 kilometres of the shore in the Kutch-Saurashtra districts of Gujarat today since the powerful cyclonic storm Biparjoy is predicted to make landfall there on June 15.
Work is being done to lessen the effects of the impending cyclone, which is anticipated to arrive close to the Jakhau port in the Kutch area on
According to the authorities, on Thursday afternoon, with gusts blowing up to 150 km per hour, people were evacuated from coastal regions, and activity in port areas were suspended.
They said that over 7,500 residents in low-lying districts close to the shore had already been relocated to safer locations within the state.
Fishermen have been urged not to enter the Arabian Sea, and warning lights have been raised at ports. Fishermen at sea have been urged to get back to land.
The state administration has been ordered by the federal government to control onshore and offshore operations and organise evacuations from coastal districts of Saurashtra and Kutch, including Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Junagadh, and Morbi.
Governmental preventative measures
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of New Delhi gave instructions to authorities to guarantee the safe evacuation of citizens residing in cyclone-prone areas.
According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), PM Modi requested top officials in a high-level meeting in New Delhi to take all feasible steps to ensure that residents of susceptible areas are safely evacuated by the state government.
Alok Pandey, the relief commissioner for Gujarat, told journalists in Ahmedabad that the state administration was continually striving to prevent fatalities.
In the areas anticipated to be hit by the storm, twelve teams each of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been sent, and plans have been made for the housing, food, and medication of evacuees, he added.
Additionally, the Indian Coast Guard is assisting with the evacuation of 50 crew members from the oil drilling ship “Key Singapore” off the coast of Dwarka while the Army, Navy, and ICG are on standby.
Regarding the evacuation
Alok Pandey, the relief commissioner for Gujarat, said that the evacuation will take place in two stages starting on Tuesday, starting with those who lived between 0 and 5 km from the coast.
The senior administrator said that following that, those who were living within 5 to 10 km of the shore would be relocated to safer areas, with children, pregnant women, and the elderly receiving precedence.
The ICG announced that an operation to rescue crew members aboard the oil drilling ship “Key Singapore” had been launched by its regional headquarters.
The rig is located 25 miles off Devbhumi Dwarka in an open sea with very heavy seas and bad weather as a result of the storm “Biparjoy,” which is expected to become quite severe soon. ICG has activated its modern light helicopter MK III for rescue operations, and 50 individuals are being flown to Okha, according to a statement.
How the state has been affected by the cyclonic weather
Following the cyclone warning, shipping operations at the country’s biggest public sector port at Kandla were suspended, and some 3,000 people, including employees there, were relocated to safer locations, according to district administration authorities.
According to them, hundreds of trucks built up since work was suspended at the Deendayal Port at Kandla in the Kutch area owing to the coming cyclone and warning signal raised there.
The port has been closed due to the signal 10 warning, and all boats, crafts, and barges have been appropriately secured in the designated locations, with 24-hour control rooms set up. According to Om Prakash Dadlani, a spokesman for the Deendayal Port Authority, “all employees and fishermen in low-lying regions have been evacuated.
In the districts of Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, and Porbandar, hundreds of people who lived in low-lying regions close to the Arabian Sea shore have been relocated to safer locations, and plans have been made to evacuate thousands more starting on Tuesday, according to the authorities.
Approximately 7,500 individuals have been relocated to safer areas. According to them, more than 3,000 residents of 31 villages in Porbandar were evacuated, and 1,500 residents of Devbhumi Dwarka were moved to safer locations.
“In Kandla, some 3,000 people were relocated, mostly fishermen and workers employed at a port. In Mandvi, residents of a few slums close to the ocean have also been relocated. From Tuesday, around 23,000 residents in communities within a 10-kilometer radius of the coast will be relocated to (temporary) shelter houses, according to Kutch collector Amit Arora.
What is IMD’s opinion?
“VSCS Biparjoy lay centred around 0230 IST on June 13, 2023 over the northeast and adjacent Eastcentral Arabian Sea, roughly 290 km southwest of Porbandar and 360 km south-southwest of Jakhau Port. The IMD said, “To cross Saurashtra & Kutch near Jakhau Port by evening of June 15 as a VSCS.”
On June 15, the IMD has issued warnings of scattered very heavy rainfall in Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, and Jamnagar as well as heavy to very heavy rainfall in a few other locations.
It warned that severe to very heavy rain may fall in a few coastal locations in other districts of Saurashtra.
Low-lying portions of several districts are anticipated to be inundated by a storm surge of roughly 2-3 metres above the astronomical tide at the time of landfall, according to the IMD, and the sea may see winds of up to 190 kmph.
The morning of June 15 is when the storm is predicted to reach landfall, and the met department has issued a warning of winds of up to 120-130 kmph with gusts to 145 kmph.
According to the forecast, sea conditions will likely be rough to extremely difficult until Wednesday evening and then high to exceptional until midday on June 15 before becoming better.
An official said on Monday that the NDRF has sent two extra teams to Mumbai as a precaution due to the approaching storm.
The NDRF teams have been stationed in Andheri and Kanjurmarg locations in the western and eastern suburbs, respectively, in addition to the three previously deployed in the city, he added.
