The evacuation of over a lakh people to shelter homes within three days before Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall in Gujarat indicated good coordination between the state and central governments and minimised damage, off♊icial sources said on Sunday.
The cyclone made landfall near Jakhꦦau on the Kutch coast of Gujarat on Thursday evening, felling trees and electric poles and damaging houses.
The evacuation of over a lakh people to shelter homes within three days before Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall in Gujarat indicated good coordination between the state and central governments and minimised damage, off♊icial sources said on Sunday.
T🀅hey said no deaths have been reported till now because of t𒁏he cyclone.
The cyclone made landfall near Jakhau on the Kutch coast of Gu𝕴jarat on Thursday evening, felling trees and electric poles and damaging housꦅes.
In nine Gujarat districts, a minister ꧟each from the state and the Centre was deputed to over🍌see the preparations, a senior official added.
Keeping in mind the aim of 'zero casualties', a senior 🎉official said the primary objective was to evacuate people residing within a 10-kilometre radius of the expected impact zone.
"A comprehensive plan was devised to identify the number of people residing w꧅ithin the 0-5-kilometre and the 5-10-kilometre radius. In Kutch district alone, 122 villages were identif𒆙ied within the 0-10-kilometre range while 72 villages fell within the 0-5-kilometre radius," the official said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the situation himself and dir🌃ected the actions that should be taken. He also gave guidance to Gujarat Chief Minister Bhuဣpendra Patel, the official said.
"🌺;This is the best example of disaster management," he added.
On June 11, Patel sent the ministers to each Gujarat district to oversee the preparations. The prime minister instructed that m💖inisters from both the central and state governments should be directly involved in the preparations to avoid any untoward incident, especially in the Saurashtra region's Gir-Somnath, Porbandar, Junagadh, Jamnagar and the Kutch districts where the cyclone was expected to have the most severe impact, the official said.
The cyclon🅺e affected eight coastal districts of Gujarat.
The ಞofficial added that 707 babies𝕴 were born in the shelter homes.
The coastal regions of Kutc꧑h and other areas affected by the cyclone are home to ports such as Kandla, Mundra, Mandvi and the Jakhau Fisheries Port.
"These ports were bustling with commercial activity, including the arrival and departure of thousands of trucks and the presence of numerous ships. Ensuring the safety of the labourers and removing ships from the port area was a priority. Meetings were 𝄹conducted with stakeholders to coordinate the evacuation efforts," the official said.
Another significant challenge 🌟was convincing the coastal residents to move to designated shelter homes, he added.
"Public representatives from the block panchayat leveꦫl to central ministers visited the villages to counsel and educate the residents about the severity of the situation. The collective effort suc🐎cessfully led to the evacuation of over 1,08,000 (1.08 lakh) people to shelter homes in safe locations within three days from June 12 to 14," he said.
Theᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ official added that the administration's efforts were also extended to safeguard the well-being of animals, a vital part of the region's🉐 economy.
"Over 2,00,000 (two lakh) animals were safely relocated to higher ground from the♏ coastal area⛦s of Kutch to protect them from the cyclone's impact," he said.
According to the India Meteorological Department, the depression -- a remnant of the cyclonic storm -- over central parts of south Rajas🌜than and its neighbourhood moved east-northeastwards at a speed of 10 kilometres per hour in the morning.
It is very likely to continue to move east-northeastwards and maintain the intensity of depression during the next 12 hours, the weather office s🌊aid.
-With PTI Input