Watch bird's-eye view: Calm before Cyclone Biparjoy hits Mandvi in Gujarat coast

Cyclone Biparjoy, heading towards Gujarat coast, is less than 200 km away from Mandvi beach in Kutch district and its impending landfall on Thursday evening will bring heavy rains and storm surges. This video brings you the drone visuals from the projected landfall site. 

The arrival of cyclone has led to evacuation of 74,000 people living in vulnerable areas mainly from the coast. In Kutch district, the district administration has shifted people from nearly 120 villages located between zero and 10 km from the seashore in Kutch district. Of this, 72 villages are located between zero and 5 km from the coast here, while another 48 sit between 5 km and 10 km from the shore.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted Biparjoy to make landfall near Jakhau port as a very severe cyclonic storm with maximum wind speed reaching up to 150 kilometres per hour. It said the intensity of rainfall will increase as the powerful weather system approaches the coast, with isolated places in Kutch, Devbhumi Dwarka and Jamnagar districts likely to witness extremely heavy rainfall.

According to the government, 74,345 people have been accommodated in the temporary shelters in eight coastal districts of Kutch, Jamnagar, Morbi, Rajkot, Devbhumi Dwarka, Junagadh, Porbandar and Gir Somnath, until Thursday morning.