Cyclone Mandous

Prelims level : Climatology Mains level : GS-III Important Geophysical Phenomena Such as Earth Quakes, Tsunami, Volcanic Activity, Cyclone Etc., Geographical features and their Locations-Changes in Critical Geographical Features (Including Water Bodies and Ice Caps) and In Flora and Fauna and the Effects of Such Changes.
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Why in News?

  • With the cyclonic storm ‘Mandous’, brewing over the Bay of Bengal, likely to hit north Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts.

What are Tropical Cyclones?

  • Tropical cyclones are violent storms that originate over oceans in tropical areas and move over to the coastal areas bringing about large-scale destruction caused by violent winds, very heavy rainfall and storm surges.
  • Tropical Cyclones are one of the most devastating natural calamities in the world.
  • Tropical cyclones originate and intensify over warm tropical oceans. 

Favourable Conditions for formation:

  • Large sea surface with temperature higher than 27° C.
  • Presence of the Coriolis force.
  • Small variations in the vertical wind speed.
  • A pre-existing weak low- pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation.
  • Upper divergence above the sea level system.

Stages of Formation of Tropical Cyclones:

  • The development cycle of tropical cyclones may be divided into three stages:
  • Formation and Initial Development Stage
  • The formation and initial development of a cyclonic storm depends upon the transfer of water vapour and heat from the warm ocean to the overlying air, primarily by evaporation from the sea surface.
  • It encourages formation of massive vertical cumulus clouds due to convection with condensation of rising air above the ocean surface.
  • Mature Stage:
  • When a tropical storm intensifies, the air rises in vigorous thunderstorms and tends to spread out horizontally at the tropopause level. Once air spreads out, a positive pressure at high levels is produced, which accelerates the downward motion of air due to convection.
  • With the inducement of subsidence, air warms up by compression and a warm ‘Eye’ (Low pressure centre) is generated. The main physical feature of a mature tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean is a concentric pattern of highly turbulent giant cumulus thundercloud bands.
  • Modification and Decay:
  • A tropical cyclone begins to weaken in terms of its central low pressure, internal warmth and extremely high speeds, as soon as its source of warm moist air begins to ebb or is abruptly cut off.
  • This happens after its landfall or when it passes over cold waters.

Cyclones in India:

  • Tropical cyclones originate over the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. These tropical cyclones have very high wind velocity and heavy rainfall and hit the Indian Coastal states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha and Gujarat (These five states are more vulnerable to cyclone disasters than others in India).
  • Most of these cyclones are very destructive due to high wind velocity and torrential rain that accompanies it.
  • There are three elements associated with cyclones which cause destruction during its occurrence. These are-
  • Strong Winds/Squall: It damages installations, dwellings, communications systems, trees etc., resulting in loss of life and property.
  • Torrential rains and inland flooding: Rain is a serious problem for the people who become shelter less due to the cyclone. Heavy rainfall is usually spread over a wide area and causes large scale soil erosion and weakening of embankments.
  • Storm Surge: It is an abnormal rise of sea level near the coast caused by a severe tropical cyclone. Due to storm Surge Sea water inundates low lying areas of coastal regions drowning human beings and livestock, causes eroding beaches and embankments, destroys vegetation and leads to reduction of soil fertility.

Management of Cyclones:

  • There are many structural and non-structural measures for effective disaster management of cyclones.
  • The structural measures include construction of cyclone shelters, construction of cyclone resistant buildings, road links, culverts, bridges, canals, drains, saline embankments, surface water tanks, communication and power transmission networks etc.
  • Non-structural measures like early warning dissemination systems, management of coastal zones, awareness generation and disaster risk management and capacity building of all the stakeholders involved.
  • These measures are being adopted and tackled on a State to State basis under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) being implemented through World Bank Assistance.
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