Evacuations in India, Pakistan as Cyclone Biparjoy nears

More than 40,000 people have left their homes in India and Pakistan as Cyclone Biparjoy approaches across the Arabian Sea, with authorities warning that it could bring gales of up to 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour) to the densely populated coastlines of the two nations.

Biparjoy, whose name means "disaster" in Bengali, is predicted to make landfall as a "very severe cyclonic storm," according to government weather monitors.

Rains and storms ahead of its arrival have already killed seven people in India's states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, including several children.

India's Meteorological Department said the storm would hit near the Indian port of Jakhau on Thursday evening.

In 2021, Cyclone Tauktae hit much the same region, claiming 174 victims — a relatively low figure attributed to extensive preparations having been ahead of landfall. However, a 1998 cyclone killed at least 4,000 people in Gujarat.

Cyclone Biparjoy follows devastating floods that ravaged Pakistan last year and killed 1,739 people.  

Where have evacuations taken place?

Officials in Gujarat said they had moved at least 20,000 people to safety from coastal regions, and authorities in Pakistan's southeastern Sindh province said they had also evacuated around the same number.

Pakistan's army and civil authorities say they are planning to evacuate 80,000 people in total.

Fishing has been suspended along the coast of Gujarat, where authorities say as many as 1.6 million people are likely to be affected by the storm. Authorities also banned gatherings along the beaches and shorelines during the cyclone. All ports, including two of India's largest, Mundra and Kandla, have been shut down as a precaution.

In Gujarat, two children were killed when a wall collapsed, and a woman was hit by a falling tree while riding a motorbike. Four boys also reportedly drowned in high seas off the western Indian financial hub,  Mumbai, in neighboring Maharashtra state.

Cyclones worsening

Scientists are urgently warning that intensity of tropical cyclones will increase as the climate warms due to human activity.  

A 2019 report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2019 found that since the 1950s, the fastest sea surface warming has occurred in the Indian Ocean.

This means that the cyclones that have always posed a major threat to the tens of millions of people living on the coast of the northern Indian Ocean are likely to grow in severity, making preparations all the more vital.