The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday said that the state is likely to recieve fairly widespread rainfall, accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty winds of 30-40 kmph on Thursday and issued a yellow alert for the districts of Kolkata, Hooghly, Howrah, Purba Bardhaman, North and South 24 Parganas, Purba Medinipur, Nadia and Murshidabad districts.
The alert is linked to a low-pressure area currently situated over the northwest Bay of Bengal, off the Odisha coast, the weather department said.
According to the IMD, the system is likely to move slowly northwards and may intensify into a depression on Thursday.
The resulting atmospheric instability could trigger scattered thunderstorm activity, increasing the risk of lightning strikes across the affected regions.
In its advisory, the IMD has urged residents, especially those in vulnerable districts, to remain indoors during thunderstorm spells.
People are advised to avoid open fields, water bodies, and tall structures during lightning episodes.
It emphasises the importance of taking precautionary measures to avoid injuries or fatalities caused by lightning.
Govt shifts people from low-lying areas of coastal districts
The West Bengal government has started moving people from low-lying areas and deployed disaster management personnel in the coastal districts amid a forecast for heavy rains due to a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal, an official said on Wednesday. Offs of all officers in these districts have been cancelled in the wake of the forecast, he said.
Disaster management and civil defence personnel have been deployed in Shankarpur, Digha and Tajpur in Purba Medinipur district, and Namkhana, Gangasagar, Pathar Pratima and Kakdwip in the South 24 Parganas district, he said.
“We have taken all sorts of measures in the coastal areas. People in the low-lying areas have been shifted to shelters, in schools and hotels. An adequate number of tarpaulins, medicines for snakebite, and dry food have been sent to these places as a part of the precautionary measure,” the official said.
The administration is also making announcements on loudspeakers, asking the people in these areas to remain alert for the next three days, he said.
Fishermen have been asked not to venture into the sea, and tourists have also been directed to stay away from the beaches, he added.
“Control rooms have been set up in all 13 blocks of the Sundarbans in addition to the one at the sub-divisional office,” an officer of the Sundarbans police district said. The Irrigation Department has also been alerted and asked to take measures to maintain the embankments in this period, he said.
(Adrija Dattain an intern at the Kolkata office of The Indian Express) — WITH PTI