समाचार Samāchār · India · 15 November 2026

Akvan forms in the Bay of Bengal. The third storm in three weeks finds a coast that has learnt

IMD expects the depression to become Cyclone Akvan on 16 November and a severe cyclonic storm on 17 November, then turn towards Andhra Pradesh. Odisha has put every district on alert.

A depression in the Bay of Bengal is set to become Cyclone Akvan on Monday. It will be the third cyclone to threaten India’s east coast in three weeks. Cyclone Arnab made landfall in Andhra Pradesh on 28 October. Cyclone Murasu followed earlier this month.

The India Meteorological Department says the depression moved nearly northwards at 10 kmph on Sunday morning. It lay about 840 km east-southeast of Chennai, 1,010 km south-southeast of Visakhapatnam and 1,130 km south-southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha. IMD expects it to move north-northwest and intensify into a cyclonic storm on 16 November. It should become a severe cyclonic storm over the west-central Bay on 17 November. It is then likely to move northwest towards the Andhra Pradesh coast over the next two days. IMD has not yet forecast a landfall point.

Odisha is not waiting for one. Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari said on Sunday that all districts are on alert, the southern and coastal ones most of all. Every district will run a 24-hour control room. NDRF, ODRAF and fire services are on standby. In Ganjam, Collector V Keerthi Vasan cancelled officials’ weekend leave and set a zero-casualty target. Fishermen there must be back on shore by 16 November. Farmers have been told to harvest before the rain expected on 18 and 19 November.

The Met department has asked fishermen already at sea to return to the coast. Coastal Andhra Pradesh can expect heavy rain at isolated places on 18 November and heavy to very heavy rain in north coastal districts on 19 November.

Three storms in three weeks is a hard season for fishing families and for farmers with crops in the field. The credit for the calm so far goes to the forecasters and to district officers who now treat each warning as an order to act. The test this week is the same: early evacuation, shelters stocked and boats in harbour.

What a founder takes from it: Warnings now come days ahead and the states act on them. That is governance working. Anyone with plants, ports or supply lines on the east coast should plan for 17 to 19 November now and not on the day.