Biparjoy weakens to depression after wreaking damage

A father and his son lost their lives as they attempted to rescue their livestock in the aftermath of Arabian Sea’s longest ever cyclone, officials said.

The cyclone resulted in power outages in 1,000 villages, sending shipping containers hurtling into the sea. It subsequently proceeded towards Pakistan, and is anticipated to bring strong winds and rainfall to areas that were recovering from the devastating floods of last year. Besides, the storm caused damage to 5,120 electric poles.

During landfall on Thursday evening, the cyclone generated wind speeds of 85 km per hour, with gusts reaching up to 105 kph along the Saurashtra and Kutch coasts. Pakistani authorities have evacuated 82,000 people, and has been on high alert.

According to the weather office, the cyclone’s eye, which had been swirling across the Arabian Sea for over 10 days, was situated approximately 20km southwest of the Jakhau port, 120km northwest of Devbhumi Dwarka, and 50 km west-southwest of Naliya.

In 2021, Gujarat’s coastline was hit by cyclone Tauktae, a more potent storm, claiming over 150 lives, and causing widespread damage. In 1998, a cyclone of similar nature struck the coastline, resulting in the loss of over 4,000 lives.

A study by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology revealed that cyclones rose 52% in frequency and by 80% in duration since 1982. This shift in cyclonic activity has catastrophic implications for the western coast, primarily due to rising sea surface temperatures.

Scientific studies also show that cyclones in Arabian Sea are intensifying and becoming more precipitous, coinciding with the rise of 1.2 degree Celcius to 1.4degree Celcius in sea surface temperatures over the past few decades.

Analysis by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), one of Asia’s leading not-for-profit policy research institutions, reveals that cyclone intensity and the number of occurrences has increased manifold. The last 50 years also recorded a 12-fold surge in the number of associated cyclonic events such as extreme rainfall, floods, and thunderstorms in India.

Further, more than 250 districts in India have been affected by such events over the past decade. While most of these have been on the eastern coast of India, the number of instances on the western coast are also increasing in recent years.

In the current case, “the extremely severe cyclonic storm could have drastic effects. Our analysis highlights that the compounding effect of cyclones is more severe than that of any other climatic event due to the amount of loss and damage they cause. Even though India has significantly reduced the loss of life caused by cyclones, there is still an urgent need to prioritise climate-proofing critical infrastructure in vulnerable regions to prepare them for extreme events like Biparjoy,” said Vishwas Chitale, Senior Programme Lead, Council on Energy, Environment and Water at CEEW.

Updated: 16 Jun 2023, 11:09 PM IST