UN praises India's MeT Dept for "almost pinpoint accuracy" on cyclone Fani

Cyclone Fani, the strongest cyclone to have hit India in 20 years, made landfall at around 8 am in Odisha, killing at least eight people.

New Delhi: The United Nations agency for disaster risk reduction has praised the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for its "almost pinpoint accuracy" of early warnings on cyclone Fani, that helped authorities conduct a well-targeted evacuation plan and minimise the loss of life.

"India's zero-casualty approach to managing extreme weather events is a major contribution to the implementation of the #SendaiFramework and the reduction of loss of life from such events," Mami Mizutori, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction, and head of the Geneva-based UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), said in a tweet.

Mizutori was referring to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda. It is a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement which recognises that the state has the primary role to reduce disaster risk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders including the local government, the private sector, and other stakeholders.

Highlighting the zero-casualty cyclone preparedness policy of the Indian government, a spokesperson for UNISDR, Denis McClean said: "the almost pinpoint accuracy of the early warnings from the Indian Meteorological Department had enabled the authorities to conduct a well-targeted evacuation plan, which had involved moving more than one million people into storm shelters".

UNISDR also tweeted about the advisory distributed by India's National Disaster Management Authority and local authorities days before Fani made landfall in an effort to minimise loss of life and injury.

Local authorities in India are accommodating evacuees in over 4,000 shelters, including 880 specially designed to withstand cyclones.
"Schools were shut, airports closed and transport suspended, and although damage to infrastructure was expected to be severe, there were no reports of any deaths," McClean said.

Highlighting the role of climate change in causing such cyclones, Gautam Narasimhan, UNICEF Senior Adviser on Climate Change said, "Children will bear the brunt of these disasters."

He said climate change is linked to rising sea levels and the increase in rainfall associated with cyclones, causing more devastation in coastal but also inland areas.
Cyclone Fani, the strongest to have hit India in 20 years, made landfall at around 8 AM in India's eastern state of Odisha, killing at least eight people.

Classified as an "extremely severe cyclonic storm" by the IMD, Fani hit the Indian coastline with maximum wind speeds of up to 175 kilometers per hour, followed by heavy rainfall and coastal flooding.

As the cyclone approaches Bangladesh, UN agencies are monitoring Fani's movements closely and taking measures to protect families living in refugee camps of Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh has evacuated over five lakh people from its southwestern districts as Fani approaches the country.