As cyclone Biparjoy brought heavy rains to several parts of Gujarat, a cattle-rearer duo of father and son died while trying to save their goats stuck in a flooded ravine in the Bhavnagar district on Thursday. Several parts of Gujarat including Bhavnagar received considerable rain on Thursday as the cyclone made landfall in the Kutch district.
Following a spell of rain since morning, water started flowing in a ravine passing through Bhandar village near Sihor town, said Mamlatdar (revenue official) S N Vala.
Duo enter ravine to save goats
"Due to the sudden inflow of water, a herd of goats got stuck in the ravine. To save the animals, 55-year-old Ramji Parmar and his son Rakesh Parmar (22) entered the ravine. However, they got swept away in the waters. Their bodies were fished out some distance away," said Vala, adding that 22 goats and a sheep also died.
No cyclone-related death was reported otherwise in the state, officials said. In Kutch district, which was the worst-affected region, there were no reports of deaths, said collector Amit Arora. "Thanks to the mass evacuation we had carried out in advance, no one has died in Kutch so far due to any incident linked to the cyclone. Some trees and electric poles were uprooted due to winds blowing at a speed of nearly 80 kilometres per hour," he said.
