Indian authorities have shut schools and evacuated tens of thousands of people from coastal areas as the nation braces for a severe cyclonic storm to hit.
Meteorologists expect that Cyclone Montha will make landfall on Tuesday near Kakinada, a port city on India’s eastern coast, which is home to nearly 400,000 people.
Disaster relief teams have already helped 38,000 people leave low-lying parts of Andhra Pradesh, a southern state of 54 million people, to relief camps.
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In neighbouring Odisha, around 32,000 people are being moved from vulnerable areas, a disaster official said.
The state government estimates that around four million people in vulnerable zones are likely to be affected in total.
Red alerts issued
According to the state’s minister for communications, Nara Lokesh, authorities have prepared 1,906 relief camps and 364 school shelters as evacuations continue in 1,238 vulnerable villages.
The storm, which is currently swirling over the Bay of Bengal, is expected to intensify and bring winds of up 55 to 68 miles per hour (88-109kph) when it reaches land.
India’s weather office has issued red alerts – the highest level of weather warnings – for 19 districts in Andhra Pradesh.
The state is expected to receive extremely heavy rain, while the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerela and Karnataka will experience moderate to heavy showers.
Fishermen have been warned not to enter the sea, while schools and colleges have been ordered to remain shut until Wednesday. Trains and flights have been partially disrupted.
Tropical cyclones, which are called hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean and Northeast Pacific and typhoons in Northwest Pacific Ocean, are among the world’s most devastating natural disasters when they hit densely populated coastal areas.
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While India’s eastern coast has long been affected by the storms, the number of particularly intense ones is increasing, with scientists blaming the impacts of climate change.
The most deadly season in recent years took place in 2023, when 523 people were killed and more than £2bn in damage was caused.
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Extreme weather ‘becoming the norm’
They are not the only extreme weather events to hit India this year.
In August, at least four people were killed and buildings swept away when floodwater crashed through a Himalayan village in a northern state.
Brief, intense downpours known as cloudbursts are becoming more common in Uttarakhand, which borders Nepal and China, according to experts, who say it’s partly down to climate change.
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Vulnerable to climate change
India, which is the world’s most populous country, is considered to be among the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impact of climate change.
In 2024 alone, there were 167 disasters in Asia, which was the most of any continent, according to the University of Louvain’s Emergency Events Database.
The world’s most populous country, India is also among the highest current emitters of planet-heating gases.
