Cyclone Biparjoy spares lives

Ahmedabad: Cyclone Biparjoy has left a trail of destruction in Gujarat's Kutch and Saurashtra regions as some 1,000 villages are still without power with hundreds of electric poles getting damaged, while several coastal villages were flooded due to heavy rains and incoming seawater, officials said on Friday, a day after the storm made landfall.

There was no loss of life in the state on account of the cyclone which was the "biggest achievement," a senior official said. Cyclone Biparjoy (`biparjoy' means calamity in Bengali) made landfall along Saurashtra-Kutch coasts near Jakhau around 6:30 pm on Thursday as a 'very severe cyclonic storm', bringing incessant rains and wind speeds of as high as 140 kmph. The landfall was over by 2.30 am on Friday.

"The biggest achievement for the state is that not a single human death has been reported so far due to cyclone Biparjoy. This has been possible because of our collective effort," state Relief Commissioner Alok Kumar Pandey told reporters. But the storm caused extensive financial loss to the state power utility Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Limited with 5,120 electricity poles getting damaged, he said.

As many as 4,600 villages were left without power, but electricity supply was restored in 3,580 villages, he added. Nearly 600 trees got uprooted and traffic on three state highways came to a standstill, the officials said, adding that at least 23 people were injured due to cyclone-related incidents while many houses were also damaged.

"Three state highways were closed as they suffered damage and saw felling of trees."

"A total of 581 trees were uprooted as per reports. Nine pucca and 20 kutcha houses collapsed, and two pucca and 474 kutcha houses suffered partial damage," he said.

Sixty-five thatched houses were destroyed, and the government was preparing an order for immediate compensation to those who have suffered losses due to the cyclone, the official added. On Mandvi -Jakhau highway, fallen trees and electric poles could be seen every 100 or 200 meters. In the Kacha village near Mandvi around 25 kutcha houses were damaged.

"We do not have electricity since yesterday. But no untoward incident has taken place in the village," Saranch of Kacha Rakesh Gaur said. "In our shelter homes we have housed 400 people from Salaya and other villages on the coast for the last four days," he added. In Mandvi town, around 30 trees and 20 electric poles were uprooted. "We do not have electricity since 4 pm yesterday. Thatched roofs of our houses were blown away and the houses were inundated with water," said Mandvi resident Abdul Hussain.

`Severe Cyclone Storm' (SCS) Biparjoy weakened into a Cyclonic Storm (CS) on Friday and was seen as gradually weakening into a deep depression by the evening. With the cyclone moving further inland, authorities in the north Gujarat districts of Banaskantha and Patan were bracing for its impact by shifting people in low-lying areas to shelters as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast extremely heavy rainfall likely in isolated places in the two districts. "SCS BIPARJOY weakened into CS at 0830IST of today and lay near lat 23.4N and long 69.5E, about 30km WNW of Bhuj, likely to weaken further into a deep depression over Saurashtra & Kutch around evening of today," the IMD tweeted. Parts of Kutch district will receive extremely heavy rainfall, it said. It also warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places with isolated extremely heavy rains in Banaskantha till Sunday morning, and in Patan till Saturday morning. Relief commissioner Pandey said that with the situation improving, over one lakh people who were relocated to safe places ahead of the landfall of the cyclone -- one of the largest such operations in the history of the state -- will now be shifted back to their homes. Banaskantha collector Varun Baranwal said that more than 2,500 people have been relocated to safe places and more people from low-lying areas were being evacuated. "We have kept 25,000 food packets ready," he said. The IMD said the remaining districts of Gujarat were also likely to receive isolated heavy rainfall on Friday. Rainfall in north Gujarat districts could also cause damage to houses and roads and uproot trees, it warned. Districts of Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Banaskantha and Morbi received very heavy rainfall, with Gandhidham, Bhuj, Anjar and Mundra talukas in Kutch district and Khambhalia in Devbhumi Dwarka receiving up to 100-200 mm rainfall in the 24 hours preceding Friday morning. Parts of Jamnagar, Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka, Rajkot, and Morbi received heavy rainfall in six hours since Friday morning, data provided by the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) showed. More than 200 teams were deployed in the Gir forest and Kutch district to respond to emergencies related to Asiatic lions and other wildlife during the the cyclone's landfall and one of the teams rescued two lion cubs that had fallen into an open well in Jasadhar Range on Thursday evening, an official said.

Talking to reporters in Delhi, NDRF Director General Atul Karwal also said that not a single human life was lost after the cyclone landfall because of the efforts of the Gujarat administration and other agencies. "Of the 1,000 villages facing electricity disruption in the state, 40 per cent disruptions were in Kutch district alone as it bore the maximum brunt of the cyclone," Karwal said. A total of 18 NDRF teams, equipped with pole and tree cutters and inflatable boats, are deployed in Gujarat to undertake rescue and relief operations. Five teams in Mumbai and four in Karnataka are actively deployed to respond to any situation that develops due to the cyclone on Friday, the DG said. The cyclone is now headed towards south Rajasthan and the NDRF has already positioned a team in Jalore (in that state) after consultation with the state government as heavy rains may lead to a situation of flooding and people getting trapped, he added.