14 May 2023

• Disaster: Cyclone Mocha made landfall near Sittwe in Myanmar's Rakhine state with 250 km per hour winds. It became the strongest storm ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean.
• Heritage: UNESCO's advisory body ICOMOS recommended Santiniketan, West Bengal, for World Heritage status.
• Climate: WMO warned of a 66 per cent probability that global temperatures would exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2027.
• North-East India: The Cyclone Mocha track and the ongoing Manipur crisis brought north-eastern connectivity and vulnerability into sharp focus.

GS area: Geography (Cyclones, Bay of Bengal)

Cyclone Mocha made landfall at approximately 12:30 local time on 14 May 2023, between Kyaukpyu township near Sittwe in Myanmar and Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.

• Peak intensity: Winds of 280 kilometres per hour. Category 5 at peak. At landfall, winds were approximately 250 km per hour (Category 4 equivalent on the Saffir-Simpson scale).
• Record: Tied with Cyclone Fani (2019) as the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean basin.
• Storm surge: A 3.5-metre tidal surge inundated the low-lying Rakhine coast.
• Bay of Bengal in May: Sea surface temperatures reach their annual pre-monsoon peak in May. Cyclones forming during this window can rapidly intensify. The ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone) migrates northward, creating favourable shear conditions.
• Why Rakhine is vulnerable: Low-lying coastal geography, poor coastal defences and a large internally displaced population (primarily Rohingya) unable to evacuate easily.
• Bangladesh response: About 1 million people were evacuated before landfall. Cox's Bazar, hosting the world's largest refugee camp with over a million Rohingya, was in the storm's path.
• Preliminary deaths: Myanmar reported 455 fatalities. The toll in the Rohingya camps was harder to count because aid access was restricted.

Static linkage: Cyclones, Bay of Bengal, disaster vulnerability (Geography).

GS area: Geography (Meteorology)

Cyclone Mocha is named after a port city on Yemen's Red Sea coast. The naming system deserves its own entry.

• WMO-ESCAP Panel: The World Meteorological Organisation and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific established the naming system in 2000 for North Indian Ocean cyclones.
• Participating nations: Bangladesh, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, UAE and Yemen contribute names.
• IMD as RSMC: The India Meteorological Department is the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre for the North Indian Ocean. It names cyclones from the agreed list.
• Naming convention: Names are drawn from a list contributed by member countries in alphabetical order of country name. Names are not reused.
• Categories for North Indian Ocean: Depression, Deep Depression, Cyclonic Storm, Severe Cyclonic Storm, Very Severe Cyclonic Storm, Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm, Super Cyclonic Storm.

Static linkage: Cyclone naming, Bay of Bengal, IMD (Geography).

GS area: Art and Culture (Heritage)

UNESCO's advisory body, ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), recommended Santiniketan in West Bengal for World Heritage status.

• What Santiniketan is: A cultural and educational institution founded by Debendranath Tagore and developed by his son Rabindranath Tagore. It embodies an alternative educational philosophy rooted in nature and open-air learning.
• Distinctive features:
  • Open-air classrooms that break with enclosed school architecture.
  • Art by Nandalal Bose and sculpture by Ramkinkar Baij on the premises.
  • Integration of Bengali, Baul and tribal traditions.
• Visva-Bharati University: Tagore founded it on the Santiniketan campus in 1921. It is a central university.
• UNESCO significance: Would be the second West Bengal cultural site on the UNESCO World Heritage List after the Sundarbans.

Static linkage: UNESCO World Heritage, Tagore, Bengal renaissance (Art and Culture).

GS area: Environment (Climate change)

The World Meteorological Organisation warned of a 66 per cent probability that global mean temperature would temporarily exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in at least one year between 2023 and 2027.

• Paris Agreement target: The Paris Agreement aims to limit long-term warming to well below 2 degrees, with efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees.
• Temporary exceedance vs. long-term breach: A temporary crossing of 1.5 degrees in one year does not mean the Paris target is permanently breached. The IPCC defines the target in terms of multi-decadal average temperatures.
• Implication for India: Temperature extremes intensify monsoon variability, increase heat stress mortality and accelerate glacier melt in the Himalayas.

Static linkage: Paris Agreement, climate targets, WMO (Environment).

• Gharials in Pakistan: The World Wildlife Fund confirmed Critically Endangered gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) in Pakistan's Punjab province. These likely migrated from gharials released in India's Beas River between 2017 and 2021.
• Gharial conservation facts: IUCN: Critically Endangered. Found primarily in the Chambal River (India). Distinguishable from crocodiles by the narrow, elongated snout adapted for catching fish. The male has a distinctive bulge (ghara) on the snout tip, from which the animal gets its name.
• ESCAP climate study: Asia-Pacific accounts for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions. Regional temperatures rose faster than the global mean over 60 years. Most vulnerable countries include China, India, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and Russia.