Alert before the arrival of the "very severe" cyclone Mocha, which is heading towards the largest refugee camp in the world

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) raised this Friday the intensity of Cyclone Mocha to “very severe”, with winds of up to 175 kilometers per hour, and decreed an alert in several regions of the east of the country, which will receive their effects until sunday. This meteorological phenomenon will enter where the Kutupalong refugee camp is located, considered the largest in the world and where about 1 million people live in subhuman conditions.

“Severe cyclonic storm 'Mocha' over the Bay of Bengal has intensified to a very severe cyclonic storm,” IMD reported in its latest bulletin.

The cyclone is currently about 520 kilometers southeast of the Indian territory of the Andaman Islands, and is crossing the bay in a north-northeast direction, according to the institute, which expects it to make landfall at midday on Sunday between the coasts of western Myanmar. (Myanmar) and southeastern Bangladesh.

Winds of up to 175 kilometers per hour

The IMD warned that Mocha will be accompanied by winds of between 150 and 175 kilometers per hour upon entering land, although the great distance that separates it from India will reduce these speeds to 70 kilometers per hour in the east of the country, where they will predominate. heavy rains over the weekend.

The institute advised fishermen and boats currently in the central and northern parts of the Bay of Bengal to return to shore and warned of the danger of venturing into the northwest of the bay until Sunday.

On land, the IMD warned that the storm could cause “minor damage to loose or unsafe structures, gaps in dirt roads, uprooting of small trees or damage to crops.”

India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has deployed eight teams and 200 rescuers in the state of West Bengal to deal with any demand, the commander of the security body itself, Gurminder Singh, told the Indian agency. ANI.

Cyclones in India

The passage of cyclones is common on the Indian coast, and a year ago the arrival of the cyclonic storm Mandous forced the authorities to instruct the closure of schools, parks, beaches, and shops located in low-lying areas or near the sea in the northern coasts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

In May 2020, super cyclone Amphan left more than a hundred dead in India and Bangladesh, in one of the worst incidents of its kind in years.