India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a warning to suspend all fishing activity in Bengal and Odisha till May 20, in the wake of super cyclone Amphan.
As cyclone Amphan intensified into a super-cyclonic storm, the West Bengal government on Tuesday started evacuating people from the coastal belts in view of the strong winds and heavy rainfall that may devastate a large part of the south Bengal districts.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already directed the state disaster management authorities to transport the evacuees to temporary cyclone centres for safety. Union Home Minister Amit Shah also spoke to Banerjee and assured help to deal with the situation arising due to cyclone Amphan.
MHA sources told news agency ANI that the Home Minister has assured West Bengal CM that the Centre is committed to helping the state and teams of NDRF have been already deployed. Amit Shah also said that Centre is ready to give any assistance West Bengal requires.
Three coastal districts of East Midnapore, South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas are expected to be the worst affected in the cyclonic spell.
Besides these three districts, cyclone Amphan is also likely to affect other south Bengal districts like Howrah, Hooghly, West Midnapore and Kolkata.
According to Kolkata Met department sources cyclone Amphan is expected to make a landfall in the state on Wednesday. Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had already said that Amphan (pronounced as UM-PUN) had already intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm overnight, which is coming at a speed of 14 km/hour towards the coastal belts of Bay of Bengal.
Currently, the cyclonic storm lays centred over west-central Bay of Bengal about 570-km nearly south of Paradip in Odisha, 720-km south-west of Digha (West Bengal) and 840-km south-southwest of Khepupara in Bangladesh. It is expected to make a landfall somewhere between West Bengal's Digha and Hatya Island in Bangladesh, sources said.
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