As the Bay of Bengal gathered its force into Cyclone Gulab in late September 2021, the coasts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh braced for a reckoning familiar to this storm-tested shoreline. Authorities moved swiftly — evacuating the vulnerable, deploying hundreds of rescue personnel, and convening national committees — enacting the hard-won lesson that preparation is the only answer humanity can offer the sea. The storm, expected to make landfall near Kalingapatnam by the evening of September 26, carried winds and rain comparable to Cyclone Titli of 2018, a name still remembered along these shore
Cyclone Gulab: Odisha, Andhra Pradesh on high alert as 24 NDRF teams deployed
Authorities conducting evacuations from low-lying areas to prevent casualties; aim is to keep loss of lives near zero.
The aim should be to keep loss of lives near zero
Mark
Why does the comparison to Cyclone Titli matter? What happened then?
Mimi
Titli hit in 2018 with similar wind speeds. By naming that precedent, the meteorological department is giving people a concrete reference point for what to expect—not abstract numbers, but a storm they may remember.
Luke
But we don't know from this reporting what Titli actually cost in lives or damage. The comparison is useful for scale, but it's not a substitute for knowing what happened.
Mark
Seven districts on alert, but Ganjam gets 15 teams while the others share the rest. Is that because it's the most vulnerable?
Mimi
The reporting says Ganjam is expected to be severely affected, so yes—the deployment reflects where officials think the worst impact will land.
Luke
That's reasonable, but we're not told why Ganjam is more vulnerable. Is it geography, population density, infrastructure? The reporting doesn't say.
Mark
The Cabinet Secretary says the goal is to keep loss of life near zero. Is that realistic?
Mimi
It's the stated aim, and the scale of the response—24 NDRF teams, Army and Navy assets, advance evacuations—suggests they're treating it seriously.
Luke
But "near zero" is not zero, and we have no historical data here about whether that's been achieved in past cyclones. It's an aspiration, not a promise.
Mark
What happens after the storm passes?
Mimi
The reporting doesn't address recovery or what comes next. It's focused on the immediate response and the hours before landfall.
Luke
That's a fair limitation of the piece. We know what's being done to prepare, but not what the aftermath typically looks like or how long recovery takes.
El Pulso
- A deep depression over the Bay of Bengal rapidly organized into Cyclone Gulab, bearing down on two Indian coastal states with winds gusting up to 95 kmph and landfall expected within hours.
- Seven Odisha districts were placed on high alert, with Ganjam — squarely in the storm's path — receiving fifteen rescue teams alone as officials scrambled to move people out of low-lying areas.
- The National Crisis Management Committee convened at the highest levels of government, with the Cabinet Secretary personally overseeing coordination between the Army, Navy, NDRF, and state disaster forces.
- District administrations cancelled all leave for government workers across two critical days, anchoring officials to their posts to ensure no emergency went unanswered.
- The explicit goal set by national authorities was stark and human: keep the loss of life near zero, and hold the line against infrastructure collapse.
As the Bay of Bengal gathered its force into Cyclone Gulab in late September 2021, the coasts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh braced for a reckoning familiar to this storm-tested shoreline. Authorities moved swiftly — evacuating the vulnerable, deploying hundreds of rescue personnel, and convening national committees — enacting the hard-won lesson that preparation is the only answer humanity can offer the sea. The storm, expected to make landfall near Kalingapatnam by the evening of September 26, carried winds and rain comparable to Cyclone Titli of 2018, a name still remembered along these shores.
On the morning of September 25, 2021, India's meteorological department warned that a cyclonic storm forming over the Bay of Bengal would reach the coasts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh within twelve hours. Named Cyclone Gulab, the system carried sustained winds of 75 to 85 kilometers per hour with gusts reaching 95 — a force meteorologists compared to Cyclone Titli, which had battered the same coastline in 2018. At the time of the warning, the storm's center sat roughly 470 kilometers from Gopalpur, moving steadily westward and expected to make landfall near Kalingapatnam by the evening of September 26.
The Odisha government moved quickly, placing seven districts — Gajapati, Ganjam, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, and Kandhamal — on high alert. Evacuations began in low-lying areas, and 42 ODRAF teams alongside 24 NDRF squads fanned out across the region. Ganjam, forecast to bear the brunt of the storm, received fifteen rescue teams. Additional fire service units and disaster response squads were held in reserve. District administrations in Gajapati and Koraput cancelled all leave for September 25 and 26, keeping officials anchored to their posts.
At the national level, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba chaired a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee, coordinating the response across central ministries, the Army, the Navy, and state governments. Gauba stressed that all precautionary measures should be in place before landfall, with an unambiguous target: minimize infrastructure damage and keep the loss of human life as close to zero as possible. Ships, aircraft, and relief teams were pre-positioned across the affected region.
Meteorologists forecast heavy to extremely heavy rainfall across south Odisha and north coastal Andhra Pradesh, with spillover effects expected in parts of Telangana and Chhattisgarh. The coordinated response — combining early warning, mass evacuation, and the pre-deployment of rescue forces — reflected a hard-learned institutional memory of what storms like Gulab can take when they are not met with preparation.
The India Meteorological Department issued a warning on September 25 that a cyclonic storm was forming over the Bay of Bengal and would reach the coasts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh within twelve hours. The system, named Cyclone Gulab, was expected to bring sustained winds between 75 and 85 kilometers per hour, with gusts reaching 95 kilometers per hour—a force comparable to Cyclone Titli, which struck the region in 2018.
By Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m., the deep depression that would become Gulab was positioned 470 kilometers east-southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha and 540 kilometers east-northeast of Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, moving westward at 14 kilometers per hour. Meteorologists predicted the system would intensify and cross the north Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha coasts near Kalingapatnam by the evening of September 26, with the most severe impact expected between Visakhapatnam and Gopalpur.
The Odisha government placed seven districts on high alert: Gajapati, Ganjam, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, and Kandhamal. Officials ordered the evacuation of people from low-lying areas and rushed rescue teams to vulnerable zones. The state deployed 42 teams from the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and 24 squads from the National Disaster Response Force, along with fire brigade personnel, across the seven districts. Ganjam district, expected to face the worst of the storm, received 15 rescue teams alone. An additional 11 fire service units, six ODRAF teams, and eight NDRF squads were held in reserve for emergencies.
At the national level, the National Crisis Management Committee, chaired by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, convened to review preparedness across central ministries, agencies, and state governments. Gauba announced that the NDRF had positioned 18 teams in the affected states with more standing ready. The Army and Navy deployed rescue and relief teams, ships, and aircraft to the region. Gauba emphasized that authorities should implement preventive and precautionary measures before landfall, with the explicit goal of keeping loss of life near zero and minimizing infrastructure damage.
The district administrations of Gajapati and Koraput cancelled all holidays and leave for September 25 and 26, directing government officials and employees to remain at their headquarters to respond to any emergency. The meteorological department forecast light to moderate showers across most of Odisha on Sunday, with heavy to very heavy rainfall in some areas and extremely heavy rainfall in isolated pockets of south Odisha and north coastal Andhra Pradesh. Parts of north interior Odisha, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh were also expected to receive heavy rainfall. The coordination between state and central authorities, combined with the advance positioning of rescue personnel and the evacuation of at-risk populations, represented an attempt to mitigate what could have been a catastrophic natural disaster.
Citas Notables
Preventive and precautionary measures should be taken by the concerned authorities before the cyclonic storm makes landfall, as the aim should be to keep loss of lives to near zero and minimise damage to infrastructure.— Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba
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