Cyclone Biparjoy

Context: Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Biparjoy is a powerful tropical cyclone that formed over the east-central Arabian Sea and is expected to make landfall near the India-Pakistan border.

CYCLONE BIPARJOY

• The third depression and the second cyclonic storm of the 2023 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Biparjoy originated from a depression that was first noted by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on 6 June, before intensifying into a cyclonic storm.
• The cyclone steadily weakened due to deep flaring convection. Biparjoy accelerated northeastward, strengthening to a Category 3-equivalent tropical cyclone and to a extremely severe cyclonic storm.

WOULD CYCLONE BIPARJOY DELAY MONSOON?

• Cyclone Biparjoy is anticipated to delay the onset of the monsoon in India.
• The cyclonic storm is expected to have a significant impact on the monsoon’s approach towards the Kerala coast, which has already been delayed.
• Biparjoy, located in the Arabian Sea far from the coastal line, weakens the current and delays the favorable conditions for monsoon.The cyclone suppresses the monsoon and interferes with its onset.
• Private forecasting firm Skymet Weather predicts that the monsoon may arrive around 9 June, with a meek and mild entry.
• The cyclone’s position and movement could drive moisture away from India, hampering the onset and progression of the monsoon.
• The delayed monsoon in Kerala does not necessarily mean a late arrival in other parts of the country, and it does not impact the total rainfall over the country during the season.
• Other factors like El Niño are also expected to have a negative impact on this year’s monsoon, affecting the rainfall patterns.

WHY CYCLONE BIPARJOY, LIKELY TO BECOME LONGEST CYCLONE IN ARABIAN SEA, IS SO DEADLY?

Conducive ocean conditions with high sea surface temperature of 31 degrees C and strong upper-level outflow has aided the rapid intensification of this cyclone. Cyclone Biparjoy has been at least a Category 1 cyclone (hurricane strength) for 126 hours.

• This is the longest duration for an Arabian Sea cyclone with at least category 1 cyclone strength (>120 kmph) in the satellite era (since 1982) as per JTWC [Joint Typhoon Warning Center]

WHAT ARE NDMA GUIDELINES FOR CYCLONE MANAGEMENT?

Early Warning System

Government would establish a state-of-the-art cyclone EWS involving observations, predictions, warnings and customised local-scale advice for decision-makers (national/state/district level) for managing the impact of cyclones.

Aircraft Probing of Cyclone (APC) facility

The government would commission an Aircraft Probing of Cyclone (APC) facility for India with a combination of manned aircraft and high altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) which can effectively fill the critical observational data gaps in the case of cyclones over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea to a great extent. An actual flight by an aircraft into and around the tropical cyclone during various stages of its development and movement can provide invaluable data for studying and understanding the structure and movement of a cyclone, thus reducing track and intensity prediction errors significantly.

National Disaster Communication Infrastructure (NDCI)

Government would commission National Disaster Communication Infrastructure (NDCI) at the NDMA/MHA, State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) of coastal states/UTs and District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) of the 84 coastal districts vulnerable to cyclones with the adoption of state-of-the-art operational infrastructure covering the following:

• High End Computing (scalable 30–50 Teraflops peak performance), Storage (800 Terabytes) and Communication Network (Gigabit Ethernet) Infrastructure;
• 3-D Virtual Reality Visual Studio;
• Centralised Comprehensive Databank for Cyclone Risk Management with nodes in various coastal states over a fail-safe communication backbone between the OCs (Operation Centres) of NDMA, SDMAs and DDMAs (for Information and Data Fusion involving collating, analysing, interpreting, translating and monitoring of early warnings from line departments based on state-of-the-art scientific and technological know-how); and
• Comprehensive state-of-the-art OC for effective coordination of Disaster Response Actions at the state and local levels.

Expanding the warning dissemination outreach

Government would be expanding the warning dissemination outreach by using the services of Direct-To-Home (DTH) transmission in remote and rural areas (Panchayats) which cannot be otherwise covered, to introduce weather channel and broadcast cyclone warnings from high-power coastal radio stations including the use of satellite radio service like World Space, Ham radios, community radio and VHF network.

Other Actions

• Structural safety of lifeline infrastructure in coastal areas
• Establishing a robust system of locating multi-purpose cyclone shelters and cattle mounds
• Ensuring cyclone resistant design standards are incorporated in the rural/ urban housing schemes in coastal areas
• Building all-weather road links to all coastal habitations, between habitations and cyclone shelters/cattle mounds
• Maintaining the full designed carrying capacity of main drains and canals along with feeder primary/secondary/ tertiary channels, creating additional flood flow canals in frequently inundated areas
• Construction of saline embankments to prevent ingress of saline water associated with cyclonic storm surge
• Encouraging public-private partnership with corporate/trusts.
• Mapping and delineation of coastal wetlands, patches of mangroves and shelterbelts, identification of potential zones for expanding bio-shield spread based on remote sensing tools.
• Regulating infrastructure and development activities in coastal zones.
• Monitoring of water quality as well as the carrying and assimilative capacities of open waters with institutionalised remedial measures.
• Developing Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) frameworks for addressing the sustainability and optimal utilisation of coastal resources as also cyclone impact minimisation plans.
• Evolving eco-system restoration plans for degraded ecological zones.
• Developing delta water management and freshwater recharge/management options.
• Coastal bio-shields spread, preservation and restoration/ regeneration plans.
• Implementing coastal flood zoning, flood plain development and flood inundation management and regulatory plans.
• Groundwater development and augmentation of freshwater requirement in coastal urban centres.
• Development of Aquaculture Parks in the identified potential zones.
• Setting up of an exclusive eco-system monitoring network to study the impact of changing climate.
• Developing integrated hazard mitigation framework taking into account cyclone and associated storm surge, wind hazard, rainfall-runoff, river flood and Geographical Information System (GIS) models for estimating possible areas of inundation along with the depth of inundation (levels), possible damage to infrastructure, crops, houses, etc., evaluating not only the vulnerability but also the changing profile of vulnerability from time to time.
• Integrate ongoing efforts of the Survey of India, Department of Space under National Spatial Data Infrastructure, National Database for Emergency Management and MoEF initiatives for speedy completion of digital spatial data generation to cover 84 coastal districts that are vulnerable to cyclones, for evolving holistic cyclone risk reduction strategies on priority. High resolution (at least 0.5 m interval) coastal Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are to be developed for micro-scale delineation of cyclone risk, hazard and vulnerability.