The Border Security Force (BSF) has ordered the 'safe positioning' of its marine wing assets and personnel along the Gujarat front in the wake of Cyclone 'Biparjoy', which is expected to make landfall on Thursday, officials said.
All the marine wing boats and about a dozen floating border posts (small ships) are being moved to safe anchors. These assets are used by the BSF to patrol the marine, creek and marshy areas along this front, a senior officer told PTI.
The border units have been asked to "exercise caution", even as a general alert for the cyclone has been made for all the formations across the BSF's Gujarat frontier, the officer said.
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The BSF is tasked to guard 2,289 kilometres of the India-Pakistan International Boundary (IB) and about 508 kilometres of it runs along the state of Gujarat. The border further runs north towards the states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
The force, under the Gandhinagar-headquartered Gujarat frontier, also guards the Sir Creek area, which is a 98-km disputed territory between India and Pakistan in the Rann of Kutch marshlands, which opens up into the Arabian Sea. The Sir Creek divides the Kutch region of Gujarat and the Sindh province of Pakistan.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday said 'Biparjoy' was likely to make landfall near the Jakhau port in the Kutch district on Thursday afternoon as a 'very severe cyclonic storm' with a maximum wind speed reaching up to 150 kilometres per hour.
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The border force has also prepared a small team of its personnel to act as rescuers whenever the administration wants them to undertake such an operation before or after the cyclone strikes.
'Biparjoy', pronounced 'Biporjoy', is a name given by Bangladesh and in Bangla, it means 'disaster'. The naming of cyclones by various countries is undertaken as per the protocol issued by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
