India is reeling under severe natural challenges

Cyclones, heatwaves, earthquakes — India is reeling under severe and varied natural challenges! As The Weather Channel India (WCI states, India looks a little weird right now. Cyclones and other conflicting weather systems have impacted the country recently in diverse ways!

Cyclone Biparjoy completed its landfall last week near the Indian state Gujarat’s Saurashtra-Kutch coasts as a very severe cyclonic storm. Biparjoy, which means ‘disaster’ or ‘calamity’ in the Bengali language, was centred in the Arabian Sea 30 kilometres off the Jakhau port in the western Indian state close to the border with Pakistan, weather officials said. The extremely severe cyclonic storm delivered 115-125 kmph winds leading to significant disruptions to human settlements necessitating evacuations, to power and communication lines in the coastal districts and with many trees being uprooted as well.

The imagery provided by the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) satellite shows that the churning vortex of Biparjoy and its wind field was large enough to cover the entire state of Gujarat, which is the fifth largest state in the country and covers an area of 196,000 km²! The system was even bigger before it got closer to the Gujarat coast.

Earlier, with an expected maximum wind speed of a frightening 140 kmph, authorities had to take action to help safeguard the impacted states against the storm well in advance. Almost 100,000 people were evacuated from Gujarat’s low-lying. Tens of ships and aircraft were on standby for disaster relief efforts. Additionally, forest officers remained vigilant against potential threats to the state’s wildlife. Trains and other transportation services, which were already shut down in anticipation of the cyclone, remain severely disrupted. In a double blow to the region, an earthquake hit the Kutch region amidst the looming threat of the cyclone.

Northeast India is still predicted to receive heavy monsoon-fuelled rain and thunderstorms Landslides triggered by torrential rains have already left the state of Sikkim in turmoil.

Contrastingly, as the WCI reports, a hot patch of land extending from Uttar Pradesh in the north, West Bengal in the east and Andhra Pradesh in the southeast remains sandwiched under excruciating heatwave conditions. This scorching originally developed over East India a couple of weeks back, and a lack of significant rain-inducing systems over the region helped prolong and spread the condition across more states in the passing weeks. Now, many central parts such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are on the roster of states inflicted by the scorching conditions. Despite rain forecasts, the heatwaves will likely continue over these parts this week as well. Owing to the southwest monsoon’s delayed arrival over Kerala and sluggish progression over the Indian mainland since, parts of East and Central India have remained largely hot and dry during the first half of June. The IMD declares a heatwave in the plains when the local temperature is expected to cross 40°C and simultaneously rise 5-6°C above the region’s average temperature.

Then, there are the earthquakes! The earthquake recorded in Kutch just before Cyclone Biparjoy, which measure 3.5 on the Richter scale comes just weeks after the last seismic event in Kutch in May 2023. Amidst a worsening flood situation, the Indian state of Assam also faced another blow as a 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck the state’s border recently. According to the National Centre of Seismology, the earthquake struck in the morning, with its epicentre located at a depth of 70 km in Bangladesh’s Sylhet region. The simultaneous occurrence of the devastating floods and the earthquake has added to the challenges faced by the people of Assam. The flood situation in Assam has also reached a critical stage, posing a significant threat to the affected regions. Recent reports reveal that the floods have adversely affected a nearly 30,000 people across districts. Rescue operations have been intensified with the involvement of both the National and State Disaster Response Forces.

Elsewhere, according to the WCI, the Doda and Kishtwar districts in Jammu and Kashmir were again rocked by five mild tremors rocked these areas following a 5.4 magnitude earthquake that hit the twin districts on June 13. Tremors of this quake were felt as far as Delhi and the national capital region. Reports said that the next five mild tremors have occurred since June 13. Kashmir is located in a highly sensitive seismological region where earthquakes have wrought havoc in the past.