Cyclone Biparjoy Weakens But On Course To Hit Gujarat; 80K People Evacuated, Rail Traffic Affected

Bhubaneswar: Cyclone Biparjoy weakened from an extremely severe cyclone to a very severe cyclone on Tuesday but it remained on course to the Saurashtra-Kutch coast of Gujarat.

“The extremely severe cyclonic storm “Biparjoy”  over eastcentral and adjoining northeast Arabian Sea weakened into a very severe cyclonic storm at 23.30 hours IST of June 12 over Northeast and adjoining Eastcentral Arabian Sea. It moved north-northwestwards with a speed of 10 kmph during past 6 hours and lay centered at 5.30 am on June 13, about 300 km west-southwest of Porbandar, 290 km southwest of Devbhumi Dwarka, 340 km south-southwest of Jakhau Port, 350 km south-southwest of Naliya and 480 km south of Karachi (Pakistan). It is very likely to move nearly northwards till June 14 morning, then move north-northeastwards and cross Saurashtra & Kutch and adjoining Pakistan coasts between Mandvi (Gujarat) and Karachi (Pakistan) near Jakhau Port (Gujarat) by evening of June 15 as a very severe cyclonic storm with maximum sustained wind speed of 125-135 kmph gusting to 150 kmph,” the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said in its morning bulletin.

Cyclone Biparjoy is likely to enter southwest Rajasthan on June 16. “It is likely to weaken and enter south-western Rajasthan as a depression on June 16,” Radheshyam Sharma, in-charge of the Jaipur Meteorological Centre, told Indian Express.

Amid the orange alert for the Saurashtra-Kutch coast as Biparjoy is likely to trigger heavy rain, and squally winds, the Western Railway has cancelled 67 trains and short-terminated or short-originated 43 others as a precautionary measure.

The weather agency further said that the intensity of rainfall would increase on June 15, with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy falls at isolated places over Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka and Jamnagar and heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places over Porbandar, Rajkot, Morbi and Junagarh districts, the weather agency said. Squally wind speed reaching 50-60 kmph gusting to 70 kmph is likely to prevails along and off Saurashtra and Kutch coasts for the next 24 hours. The wind speed would further increase on June 14 morning to 65-75 kmph gusting to 85 kmph from along and off Porbandar and Devbhoomi Dwarka district coasts. On June 15, the gale wind speed would increase to 125-135 kmph gusting to 150 kmph along and off Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Junagarh and Morbi districts, it added,

Authorities in the coastal districts of Kutch, Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Junagadh, and Morbi have started the process of evacuation. “Till now, 8000 people have been evacuated and moved to safer locations in Kachchh. 1.5- 2 lakh small and big animals have been moved to higher places,” said Union minister Dr Mansukh Mandviya.

All agencies, including central and state governments, IAF, Navy, Coast Guard and Disaster management authorities, are working together to minimise the impact of cyclone, he added.

It will also be the third cyclone to hit the western state in June since 1965. “Based on data from 1965 to 2022 for the month of June, 13 cyclones developed over the Arabian Sea. Of these, two crossed the Gujarat coast, one Maharashtra, one Pakistan coast, three Oman-Yemen coasts and six weakened over the sea,” the IMD said.