ISLAMABAD: Biparjoy, a powerful cyclone in the Arabian Sea that hit India and Pakistan last week, killed four people and displaced around 85,000 others in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh, a United Nations (UN) body said on Tuesday.
Climate modeling estimates suggest that approximately 2 million people in Pakistan are expected to become climate migrants by 2050. Another report by Action Aid advocacy group suggested in 2021 that even with emission reduction, 600,000 people will get displaced due to climate events by 2030.
Biparjoy, the very severe cyclonic storm that developed into the Arabian Sea this month, largely spared Pakistan, but left a destructive trail on the western Indian coast of Gujarat. While the cyclone landed with low intensity in coastal areas of Pakistan's Sindh on June 15, it exposed an estimated population of 1.2 million people to wind speeds of up to 120km per hour.
However, the storm's impact was minimal on human lives and infrastructure, and the relief camps set up to accommodate vulnerable people had now been closed after repatriating displaced people to their villages.
"Relief camps for evacuees have been closed, and 84,610 people have been repatriated to their villages," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Pakistan said in its report on Tuesday.
"High winds and heavy rains brought by Cyclone Biparjoy resulted in 4 fatalities, 5 injuries, 2,460 houses partially damaged, and 190 houses fully damaged."
The rain-related incidents also perished 1,798 livestock in Sindh's Tharparkar district, according to the UN report. The rains, flash floods and winds impacted six roads, one bridge and 1,019 acres of crop area.
Biparjoy developed into a cyclone in the early morning hours of June 6. According to Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, sea surface temperatures in the Arabian Sea were 31°C to 32°C in early June, which was 2°C to 4°C above the climatological mean.
A rule of thumb among scientists is that ocean temperatures should be above 27°C to sustain a tropical cyclone, according to NASA. Unusually warm waters helped fuel Biparjoy’s rapid intensification twice in its lifetime.
Cyclones in the Arabian Sea are relatively rare, although they are becoming more frequent with rising sea surface temperatures. A 2021 study led by researchers in India found that cyclones over the last four decades had become more frequent and lasted longer. The researchers found ocean temperatures were linked to this change.
