Rescuers, administration on alert as Cyclone Asani approaches

Cyclone Asani is likely to form on Monday evening over the north Andaman Sea, bringing heavy rain and strong winds to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Sunday.

The depression over southwest Bay of Bengal and south of the Andaman Sea moved north-northeast wards at a speed of 12 kmph and lay centred over the north Andaman Sea and the southeast Bay of Bengal, about 200 km north-northeast of Car Nicobar (Nicobar Islands), 100 km south-southeast of Port Blair (Andaman Islands) and 730 km south-southwest of Yangon (Myanmar) on Sunday, the IMD bulletin said.

It is likely to move nearly northwards along and off Andaman & Nicobar Islands, intensify into a deep depression and a cyclonic storm during subsequent 12 hours, the Met department added.

“We have not mentioned or predicted any landfall point. It will move along & off Andaman & Nicobar Islands and then over the east-central Bay of Bengal and along and off the Myanmar coast and gradually reduce and becoming squally winds speed reaching 55-65 kmph gusting to 75 kmph over the same region from Tuesday evening. When moving along and off Andaman and Nicobar it is likely to bring extremely heavy rains and strong winds to the region,” a senior scientist of IMD said.

“The centre of the Bay of Bengal depression is expected to be around 50 km from the eastern coast of Andaman Islands during morning hours of 21 March. It would be an intense depression at this stage, which is expected to evolve into #CycloneAsani by the evening,” tweeted Akshay Deoras, a meteorologist at the University of Reading in England tweeted.

“An important factor that will favour the strengthening of the low-pressure system is a warm sea surface temperature of around 30°C, which is around 1.5°C warmer than the average. The system is expected to reach its peak intensity by 21 March evening,” he added.

Ministry of home affairs, in its official statement about two days ago, had informed that one National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team has been deployed in Port Blair and that additional teams are ready and will be airlifted if required.

Andaman and Nicobar Administration is ready with sufficient stocks of emergency supplies and measures to protect population and restoration of infrastructure, the ministry informed.

Further, fishing, tourism and shipping activities have been stopped. Fishermen have been advised to return from sea.

Indian Army, Navy, Air Force and Indian Coast Guard on standby. Central ministries ready with assistance if required, ministry of home affairs stated.

Light to moderate rainfall or thundershowers is likely at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and isolated extremely heavy rainfall (over 20 cm) is likely over the north Andaman Islands on Monday.