Cyclone Biparjoy made a landfall on Thursday as India and Pakistan evacuated more than a hundred thousand people on concerns over widespread destruction in the affected area.
India’s meteorological department confirmed that the severe storm hit the country’s west around 6:30pm on Thursday and would likely move northeastwards. It will cross the districts of Kutch and Saurashtra, heading up to Pakistan’s coastal financial capital Karachi within the next few hours. The wind speed was as high as 140 kilometers (87 miles) an hour, the weather bureau said.
The very severe cyclone Biparjoy — a name which means disaster — has shuttered some major Indian oil and container ports, including Adani Group’s flagship Mundra operation and the oil ports of Sikka and Vadinar. The Indian army has sent about 4,500 specialized personnel to the area to provide medical assistance and help in the recovery.
The cyclone follows devastating rains in Pakistan last year that flooded about a third of the nation, killing 1,700 people, displacing millions, and causing about $30 billion in losses and damages. It will further complicate the country’s efforts to revive the economy at a time when it has to make billions of dollars of external debt payments.
The western Indian state of Gujarat, which will bear the brunt of the “very severe” category storm, has evacuated more than 74,000 people, the Press Trust of India reported. Neighboring Pakistan has so far moved almost 77,000 people from Sindh, according to a statement from the provincial government.
Heavy rainfall is likely in some areas of Gujarat for three days through Saturday and Rajasthan for two days from Friday, India’s weather office said earlier. The storm will be intense enough to damage crops, plantations, trees, mud houses and communication and electricity poles, as well as the railway signaling system, it said.
The cyclone will cause extremely heavy rainfall of more than 300 millimeters in some coastal areas of Pakistan and over 100 millimeters in some other cities, including Karachi, according to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.
--With assistance from Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Faseeh Mangi and Ismail Dilawar.