Cyclone Nivar, which is brewing in the Bay of Bengal, is heading towards the southern states and the Union Territory (UT) of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. It is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, and Nivar is likely to bring heavy rains in these places.
However, it is not the first major cyclone to hit a state this year or in the past 12 months. Here are some of the major cyclones that have occurred in India since 2019:
1. Cyclone Amphan: India’s first major cyclone of 2020, the super cyclonic storm Amphan caused significant damage in West Bengal, as well as neighboring Bangladesh. Odisha, another eastern state, was also hit by Amphan, although it was spared the kind of damage caused by the cyclone in West Bengal. Formed on May 16, Amphan dissipated on May 21, leaving widespread destruction in its wake, claiming more than 100 lives, most of which were from West Bengal.
2. Cyclone Nisarga: The severe cyclonic storm Nisarga hit the Indian subcontinent in just two weeks from Amphan, and most severely affected India’s financial center of Maharashtra, where all deaths due to cyclone six occurred. The state of Gujarat and the UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (DNHDD) were also placed on high alert, although both escaped Nisarga’s wrath. Formed on June 1 and dissipated on June 4, Nisarga was the strongest tropical cyclone to hit Maharashtra since June 1891.
3. Cyclone Fani: The extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani caused significant damage in Odisha, being the strongest tropical cyclone to hit the state since 1999. Although Fani also affected other states such as West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, as well as neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, Odisha was the one who bore her worst. Fani, which formed on April 26, 2019 and dissipated on May 5, claimed 89 lives in total. Odisha was praised by the United Nations for her handling of the crisis.
4. Cyclone Bulbul: Another cyclone that affected both West Bengal and Bangladesh, Bulbul, was a very severe cyclonic storm. A tropical cyclone, Bulbul began to form on November 5, 2019 and dissipated on November 11, claiming a total of 41 lives. Only the second to reach the category 3 hurricane, the first case being in 1960, Bulbul also affected neighboring countries such as Myanmar and Thailand, in addition to Bangladesh.
5. Cyclone Vayu: Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Vayu was a strong tropical cyclone that claimed a total of eight lives in June 2019. Vayu was the strongest cyclone to hit the Saurashtra region of Gujarat since 1998. It formed on June 10, 2019 and dissipated on June 17. Vayu, which was named by India after the Sanskrit and Hindi word ‘vayu’ or wind, and affected more than 6.6 million people in the northwest of the country.
6. Cyclone Maha: The extremely severe cyclonic storm Maha mainly affected the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Kerala. Maha started out as a depression, intensifying further to become Cyclonic Storm, Very Severe Cyclonic Storm, and eventually Extremely severe cyclonic storm. Formed on October 30, 2019, Maha dissipated on November 7.
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