A large part of north Bihar was ravaged by a natural disaster in the shape of high velocity cyclonic storm — Kal Baisakhi or nor’westers —which left more than 40 people dead and over 100 injured in the overnight till early Wednesday. The worst-affected were Purnia and Madhepura districts. Bihar has sought the help of the Centre to meet this calamity. Thirty people died in Purnia, which shares borders with Nepal and Bangladesh.
The 150-200 km/hour cyclonic storm hit 12 north Bihar districts, including Purnia, Madhepura, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Katihar, Kishanganj, and Bhagalpur. Apart from loss of human lives, standing crops in thousands of acres was badly damaged. Thousands of trees and hundreds of houses fell and more than 40 people, including women and children, died in the calamity. The exact number of deaths is yet to be ascertained.
After making an aerial survey of the affected regions, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced an ex gratia of Rs4 lakh to the kin of each deceased. “The ex gratia is being distributed and injured people have been rushed to hospitals. The authorities are making evaluation of the loss of lives and cattleheads and the crops,” the CM announced on his return.
“Altogether 42 deaths have been reported from four to five districts. A majority of the deaths --- around 30 have occurred in Purnia, while seven lost their lives in Madhepura,” Kumar told reporters at the Patna airport. Meanwhile, the Met department has issued an alert of thunder squall on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The CM had a video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday evening and also spoke to Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The Centre assured all assistance. Nitish said a memorandum would soon be sent to the Centre listing the damages. Nitish said when he enquired from the airport officials at Purnia, he was told that the Met department had alerted about hailstorm, but no one had expected such high velocity wind.
State Disaster Management principal secretary Vyasji said the maximum number of deaths were reported from Purnia, besides six deaths from Madhepura as well as from Madhubani and Darbhanga. “Road transport in the districts have been hit in the aftermath of the storm as many trees are lying uprooted,” said India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director in Patna, RK Giri
“The storm descended from Nepal side hitting Purnia, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga and went deep inside the state up to Bhagalpur,” Giri said. Such storms, he said, are common in this season and are called ‘Kal Baisakhi’ or ‘nor’westers.”