As Cyclone Biparjoy approaches India and Pakistan, some 40,000 people were evacuated from the two countries on Tuesday, June 13, authorities said. Biparjoy – which means “disaster” in Bengali – was advancing in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday and is expected to make landfall on Thursday, between southern Pakistan and western India, according to meteorological services.
More than 22,000 people have been evacuated in the Pakistani province of Sind, and more than 20,000 in the Indian state of Gujarat, according to the authorities of the two countries. On the Gujarat coast, fishermen have been told to stay in port as waves can be over three meters high. The Indian Coast Guard on Monday evacuated the 50 crew members of an oil prospecting vessel that was struggling in the storm.
Gujarat authorities say heavy rains and strong winds as the cyclone approaches have already claimed three lives – two children crushed by a collapsing wall and a woman hit by a falling tree she was riding a moped – and around 1.6 million people are at risk.
In Pakistan, between 22,000 and 23,000 residents of seaside villages have been evacuated to the interior, Badin District Deputy Commissioner Agha Shahnawa said. Tens of thousands of people have been housed in temporary shelters set up in schools in the district. Heavy rains accompanied by strong winds have already killed at least 27 people, including eight children in the northwest of the country on Sunday, with most deaths due to collapsing buildings.
In 2021, the same region was hit by Cyclone Tauktae, which claimed more than 150 lives and caused extensive damage. Cyclones – also known as hurricanes in the North Atlantic and typhoons in the Pacific Northwest – are a regular threat to the northern Indian Ocean coasts, where tens of millions of people live. According to scientists, these phenomena tend to become more violent due to global warming.