Say hello to one-month-old baby Biparjoy, named after the cyclone
Awaiting the imminent landfall of Cyclone Biparjoy in Gujarat, a woman has decided to name her one-month-old daughter Biparjoy. The family, who is among the thousands of people who have been relocated to safer areas because of the cyclone, is now living in Jakhau in the Kutch district. This is not the first time a baby was named after a severe storm.
What does Biparjoy mean?
Biparjoy literally means 'disaster' or 'calamity' in Bengali. This name has been given by Bangladesh and adopted by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in 2020. "Nations in the Northern Indian Ocean began using a new system for naming tropical cyclones in 2000; the names are listed alphabetically country-wise and are neutral gender-wise," says the WMO website. Naming cyclones was started to enhance storm identification.
The trend of naming after cyclones
In 2021, 30 out of 300 children born during the super Cyclone Yaas were named after the storm. The same year, two women in the Ganjam district of Odisha named their newborn daughters "Gulab" in honor of the cyclone that brought rain and triggered landslides there. However, Gulab also means rose. Several Odisha families had earlier named children after cyclones Titli and Fani.
When babies were named after the COVID-19 virus
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a newborn born in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, was named "Corona." Later, two children in Andhra Pradesh's Kadapa district were also named after the virus. Many of these families claimed that the reason they named their children after a disease was that it brought the whole world together in the battle against the virus during the pandemic.
Cyclone Biparjoy to hit Jakhau Port in Gujarat
According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), before hitting Jakhau Port in Gujarat's Kutch district, Cyclone Biparjoy will cross Saurashtra and Kutch and the adjoining Pakistan coasts between Mandvi and Karachi. Indian Armed Forces were mobilized for relief efforts, and about one lakh people have been evacuated following a red alert issue. Several NDRF teams have already been placed in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Diu.
