Cyclone Biparjoy: No lives lost after landfall, says NDRF

NEW DELHI: National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Director General Atul Karwal on Friday said that there has been no loss of lives reported after Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall in Gujarat. He also said that there is a possibility of heavy rainfall in south Rajasthan by this evening.

Addressing a press conference here, the NDRF Director General Atul Karwal said that two people had died before landfall but there was no loss of lives after landfall.

"Twenty-four animals have died and 23 people have been injured. Electricity supply has been interrupted in about a thousand villages. 800 trees have fallen. It is not raining heavily anywhere except Rajkot," the NDRF DG Karwal said.

The cyclone, which originated in the Arabian Sea and swept across the west coast of India made landfall on Thursday night around 10 km north of the Jakhau Port in Kutch, as per IMD reports. 'Biparjoy' has been predicted to weaken into a deep depression over the Saurashtra-Kutch region, southern Rajasthan, and other adjoining areas by this evening.

"Strong winds accompanied by heavy rains are blowing at Mundra, Mandvi, Naliya, and Jakhau. Police are deployed everywhere and are stationed all over the district so that they can reach wherever there is a need. No casualties have been reported so far. We appeal to the people to come out of their houses only after the cyclone has completely calmed down," Bhuj Superintendant of Police Karan Singh Vaghela said. According to NDRF Director General, there is a possibility of heavy rainfall in south Rajasthan.

"As the cyclone loses its power and becomes a deep depression, there is a possibility of rainfall in south Rajasthan. The 18 teams deployed in Gujarat are working there, and we are also in touch with Rajasthan. Upon the request of the Rajasthan State Government, we have sent a team to Jalore in advance of the eventual possibility that the heavy rain will cause flooding," the NDRF Director General said. He also added that apart from Gujarat and Rajasthan, NDRF teams have been deployed to the other affected parts of India as well.

"Our teams are also deployed in other affected states; four in Karnataka, five in Maharashtra, one in Diu (UT), and also several teams are stationed in reserve in these areas," he said. "More than 500 houses were damaged; mostly thatched and kutcha houses and only six to seven pucca houses suffered damage. Electricity supply was been interrupted in about a thousand villages, almost 40 per cent of them were in the Kutch district. 800 trees have suffered damage," Karwal said.

The DG of NDRF also spoke about the successful evacuation mitigation in the low-lying critical areas of Gujarat. "The Gujarat Government made very good arrangements after doing an in-depth study, which we were also a part of. The Gujarat government studied in detail the number of villages within the immediate range of 0-10 km from the coastline," he said.

"According to State Government estimates around 20 lakh people were under the impact of the cyclone and more than 1 lakh people were evacuated from the critical areas, which was a good step of mitigation, and is probably why we got through the landfall with no human deaths. The two lives lost beforehand, the loss is unfortunate, however, the casualties were effectively minimised," the NDRF DG said. He provided updates on the current wind and rainfall condition of the Gujarat districts.

"Apart from Kutch, the wind speeds have reduced and apart from Rajkot, there's not much rainfall in the other areas, although there has been some flooding in Dwarka. Wind speed in Kutch is around 90-100 kmph and around 40-70 kmph in surrounding areas. Kutch was the most affected, along with 8 other districts from Saurashtra such as Devbhumi Dwarka, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Morbi, Rajkot, and Porbandar. There's no heavy rain in areas except Rajkot, however, heavy rain is expected in south Rajasthan in the evening." He spoke about the NDRF and the administration's immediate efforts.

"Our primary effort will be to restore normalcy at the earliest. Also to ensure that in the ensuing rainfall in the forecasted areas, we are able to rescue people if they get caught up in any flooding," he said.