Amid cyclone Biparjoy, more than 700 evacuated mothers deliver babies
During cyclone Biparjoy, which struck Gujarat as a ‘very severe cyclonic storm’ on Thursday, over 700 babies were born, state-based media organisation DeshGujarat reported citing a government statement.
Anticipating significant loss of life and damage due to the destructive cyclone, the government had evacuated nearly 1 lakh people in advance, including 1,152 pregnant women. Out of these pregnant women, 707 successfully gave birth to babies.
About 348 births have been recorded in Kutch district, 100 in Rajkot, 93 in Devbhoomi Dwarka, 69 in Gir Somnath, 30 in Porbandar, 25 in Junagadh, 17 in Jamnagar, 12 in Rajkot Mahanagarpalika, eight in Junagadh Municipal Corporation, four in Jamnagar Municipal Corporation, and one in Morbi District, the report added.
The cyclone made landfall near Jakhau Port in Gujarat’s Kutch district Thursday evening. Among 1,09,000 persons shifted from coastal areas to safe zones, there were 10,918 children, 5,070 senior citizen. Following the landfall, incessant rains and wind speeds as high as 140 kmph followed in various districts of Gujarat. The weather body forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall in Jamnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Morbi, and Kutch until Saturday morning. There is also a possibility of isolated extremely heavy rainfall in these areas. Additionally, Banaskantha and Patan districts are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall with isolated extremely heavy rainfall until Sunday morning.
While no deaths were reported due to the cyclone, two people had died due to falling of a tree due to strong winds before the landfall, NDRF Director General (DG) Atul Karwal said Friday. 23 people were also injured during the cyclone.
After churning in the Arabian Sea for 10 days, the cyclone has now weakened into a deep depression over the Saurashtra-Kutch region. Its arrival and presence of another western disturbance over the northwest Himalayan region also brought rain in neighbouring states including Delhi and adjoining regions on Friday afternoon.