Cyclone Biparjoy batters Gujarat coast, trail of destruction feared; at least 2 persons killed

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel to take stock of the situation. “He also expressed concern about the lions and other wild animals in Gir forest,” said a government statement. At a meeting at the State Emergency Operations Centre in Gandhinagar, Patel directed officials to provide “cash doles, household goods, hut assistance and animal assistance to the affected”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel to take stock of the situation. (Express photo by Nirmal Hariharan)

Officials said a shepherd and his son were killed after being swept away in a flooded stream near Bhavnagar city. Around 20 of their sheep were also killed in the incident. This took the death toll in events related to the cyclone to six since Monday.

At 10.30 pm on Thursday, the centre of the cyclone, which itself was about 50 km in diameter, was located 20 km in the sea from Jakhau Port in Gujarat, and moving at a speed of 10-12 kmph, slightly slower than expected. The process of landfall was expected to get completed by midnight, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Cyclones moving slowly during the process of landfall have a greater potential to cause damage because it stays for a longer time on the land. It usually also results in more rainfall.

After the completion of landfall, however, cyclones lose steam pretty quickly in the absence of moisture to sustain themselves. Biparjoy is expected to lose most of its energy by Friday, though its effects would remain for the next two to three days.

Apart from Gujarat, some areas in Rajasthan are expected to experience strong winds and rainfall till Saturday. Some of these effects can be felt in Delhi, Haryana and their adjoining areas as well.

Indian Army soldiers remove a tree that was uprooted by squally winds of Cyclone Biparjoy in coastal Dwarka town in Devbhumi Dwarka on June 15, 2023. (Express photo by Bhupendra Rana)

According to IMD regional director Manorama Mohanty, districts like Banaskantha and Patan in north Gujarat were likely to get heavy to very heavy rains over the next two days. Over a thousand people had been shifted out of Patan, a government release said. This is in addition to the over 94,000 people who had earlier been evacuated from the coastal villages of Gujarat – over 48,000 were from Kutch alone.

“The wind speed will gradually decrease and by Friday evening it will almost normalise,” Mohanty said.

Gujarat’s coastal districts have been witnessing widespread rainfall since Wednesday. The rainfall resulted in power outages in Dwarka and Jamnagar districts. In Porbandar, a section of National Highway 51, connecting to Veraval, was blocked after several trees were uprooted.

Ram Parmar (55), a shepherd, and his son Rajesh (22) were killed after they were swept away in a flooded stream while trying to save their herd of sheep from drowning in Sodvadar village, on the outskirts of Bhavnagar city, on Thursday evening.

The district flood control room of Bhavnagar said that it received the information about the missing father-son duo at 6:25pm. A search and rescue mission was launched, and the bodies were later fished out.

In Kutch district, dozens of roads were blocked due to uprooted trees and electricity poles. “We have weathered the initial round of gusts after the landfall started. As of now, the wind speed has fallen and rain has stopped but the IMD is telling us that the eye of the cyclone is still 30 kms away from Jakhau Port, and we may be hit by two or three more rounds of gusts and rains,” Devang Rathod, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), told The Indian Express over phone from his office in Naliya, the headquarters of Abdasa taluka in which Jakhau Port falls.

“Trees and electricity poles have been uprooted, blocking roads. Officials at the local IMD office in Naliya are telling us that winds are gusting at 80 kmph. Electricity supply has been cut in some areas as a precaution and there are outages in others. Some people have been rescued but there are no reports of any injury or human casualty so far,” Rathod said.

Minutes after the landfall process began, Jakhau village sarpanch Abdul Sumra told The Indian Express that the cyclone had already caused some damage. “Trees have been flattened in the village and a couple of houses have collapsed, but nobody has been reported injured so far. Fibre-sheet roofs of some houses have been blown away and we are worried about some maldharis who have stayed back in Ashira Vandh and Darar Vandh settlements to look after their buffaloes and camels. We requested the government to cut power supply to the village to prevent accidents and, accordingly, the power supply was cut at 1 pm,” Sumra said.

Earlier in the day, as strong winds rapidly gained speed, police asked everyone to leave Jakhau harbour and move to safer places. A response team of the roads and buildings department also hurried back to Naliya as waves started splashing the highway. The Jakhau Marine police station personnel also moved to Jakhau village, 10 kms inland.

“It’s no longer safe for people to be at the Jakhau harbour. Everyone, including staff of the fisheries department, port, and those managing the lighthouse, have shifted to safer areas. A handful of the Indian Coast Guard personnel are the only ones left at the port,” H T Mathiya, Sub-Inspector, Jakhau Marine police station, told The Indian Express.

At the cyclone shelter at the primary health centre in Jakhau village, Hasan Jat (45), a resident of Ashira Vandh, a settlement of maldharis (cattle-herders) about 10 km southwest of Jakhau village, said: “My aged father Umar and youngest brother, Abu Talab (25), stayed back to look after our herd of 70 buffaloes. While our settlement is on an elevated stretch of land, about 5 kms from the coast, tidal waves can harm our buffaloes.” Hasan was evacuated on Monday along with the families of his three brothers.

“My house has a tiled roof and we will remain indoors. That’s all we can do. The rest depends on nature,” said Kasam Sanghar (35), a truck driver from Jakhau.

“Whether we are afraid of the cyclone or not, where else can we go. We’ll stay indoors and try to weather the storm,” said Juma Koli, who works in salt pans of a private company in Jakhau and has a family of 30 members, including four sons and eight grandchildren — some of them live in two houses with roofs made of fibre sheets.

In Dwarka, officials said over 350 electricity poles have fallen due to the gusty winds since Wednesday. The Paschim Gujarat Vij Corporation Limited (PGVCL) has moved 17 teams of officials and engineers to the district to enable quick restoration of electricity.

A government statement quoted Chief Secretary Raj Kumar as saying that the administration had begun moving the fallen trees and repairing the electricity poles in the districts of Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Morbi, Rajkot and Gir Somnath.

“The power department has made adequate arrangements to restore power supply in some villages in Dwarka, Jamnagar, Morbi and Junagadh due to fallen trees and rain,” the release said.

– With ENS inputs from Gandhinagar, Vadodara