India, Pakistani coasts on high alert a day before Cyclone Biparjoy is expected to make landfall

The coastal regions of India and Pakistan were on high alert Wednesday with tens of thousands being evacuated a day before Cyclone Biparjoy was expected to make landfall.

The India Meteorological Department said the cyclone was now packing maximum sustained winds of up to 145 kilometers per hour (90 mph). It is projected to make landfall near Jakhau port in the Kutch district of India’s Gujarat state on Thursday.

Residents living within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the coast in Gujarat were evacuated, and those living within 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) may also have to move out, officials have said.

Four people have been killed so far in incidents related to the cyclone, including three boys who drowned off Mumbai’s coast and a woman who was killed due to an accident caused by strong winds in Gujarat. Search and rescue operations are still ongoing to find one more person who drowned in the seas off Mumbai.

Experts say climate change is leading to an increase in cyclones in the Arabian Sea region, making preparations for natural disasters all the more urgent.

At a relief camp for displaced people in the Pakistani village of Gharo in Sindh province, wage laborer Allah Noor, 59, said soldiers came and evacuated them amid a strong windstorm.

In Kutch, where the cyclone was expected to hit land, 57-year-old boat owner and businessman Adam Karim Dhobi said this was the worst storm he’d seen since 1998.

“We have parked our boats in safe places," Dhobi said. "We are praying to God that this cyclone doesn’t cause too much damage here.”

The Press Trust of India news agency said nearly 40,000 people have been evacuated to relief camps in Gujarat.

Nikhil Mudholkar from the National Disaster Response Force who was overseeing relief operations in Devbhoomi Dwarka district along Gujarat’s coast, said they were fully prepared and were now in waiting mode.

"We have deployed 23 teams and have moved everyone living near the coast to safer grounds,” Mudholkar added. “Windspeeds have picked up now and rains have started too."

In Pakistan, despite strong winds and rain, authorities said all people from vulnerable areas have been moved to safer places in the southern districts, including Thatta, Keti Bandar, Sajawal and Badin — regions that only last summer were affected by the devastating floods that displaced thousands.

For many there, it ws a second displacement in less than a year. People packed up as many of their belongings they could into their cars and left — either on their own or under troop escort — heading to relief camps set up inside government buildings and schools.

At the Gharo relief camp, 80-year-old Bayan Bibi said there was no medicine for the sick available at the camp.

On Tuesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif ordered the evacuations from risk areas and asked local authorities to arrange food, shelter and medical facilities for the displaced.

Pakistan’s Climate Minister Sherry Rehman urged people not to panic but work with the authorities, promising they would be taken to safer places.

The cyclone has “extensive damaging potential” and is likely to impact Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka and Jamnagar districts the most, India's IMD has said.

Fishing activities have been suspended in both countries until June 16. All ports in the region including the major ports of Kandla and Mundra have been shut. Dozens of trains and flights that were scheduled to ply in this region have been diverted or canceled.

Also Tuesday, India’s home minister Amit Shah held an emergency meeting with senior officials to review preparedness and announced a budget of $972 million for disaster management.

A recent study shows that the Arabian Sea has warmed up by almost 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since March this year, making conditions favorable for severe cyclones, he said.

“The oceans have become warmer already on account of climate change,” Raghu Murtugudde, an Earth system scientist at the University of Maryland said.

Another study, in 2021, found that the frequency, duration and intensity of cyclones in the Arabian Sea had increased significantly between 1982 and 2019, he said.

Cyclone Tauktae in 2021 was the last severe cyclone that made landfall in the same region. It claimed 174 lives, a relatively low figure thanks to extensive preparations ahead of the cyclone.

In 1998, a cyclone that hit Gujarat state claimed more than 1,000 lives and caused excessive damage. A cyclone that hit Sindh province and the city of Karachi in 1965 killed more than 10,000 people.

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Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Arasu reported from Bengaluru, India. Associated Press reporters Muhammad Farooq in Gharo, Pakistan, and Rafiq Maqbool in Mumbai, India, contributed to this report.

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