Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a clarification regarding the anticipated cyclone to be called ‘Sitrang’. The low-pressure area formed over the southeast Bay of Bengal on Thursday, which is likely to move west-northwestwards and concentrate into a depression by Saturday morning (October 22), the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said. The weather system is likely to further intensify into a cyclonic storm over the west-central Bay of Bengal by Monday (October 24) and reach the coasts of West Bengal and Bangladesh on Tuesday (October 25), skirting the Odisha coast.
IMD Director General Mrutunjay Mohapatra has said while there is no possibility of the storm making landfall in Odisha, the state is expected to witness heavy to very heavy rainfall. The Odisha government has alerted seven coastal districts — Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Balasore — and asked them to take precautionary measures. The IMD has also advised fisherfolk not to venture out to sea from today.
IMD so far has not predicted where the landfall will take place due to the anticipated cyclone. The regional MeT centre in Bhubaneswar under the India Meteorological Department has said that the news where it is being shown that — as predicted by the IMD the anticipated cyclone will make landfall in Odisha — is not based on a true fact. About landfall of this anticipated cyclone IMD has not predicted yet, the clarification said.
Reportedly, earlier today in some media it had been said that — IMD said that the anticipated cyclone to be called ‘Sitrang’ will skirt the Odisha coast and move towards the West Bengal-Bangladesh coasts.
