After making landfall along the Andhra Pradesh coast on Wednesday, the very severe cyclonic storm named Arnab has lost much of its intensity, slipping to the status of a depression and moving inland across central India. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the system is expected to further weaken into a well‑marked low pressure by Thursday evening, but not before it delivers heavy rainfall, wind gusts and flooding to a swath of states from Andhra Pradesh to West Bengal.
Meteorological outlook and new low‑pressure development
According to the IMD, the remnants of Arnab are centred over southern Chhattisgarh and adjacent parts of Odisha, with the centre located roughly 110 kilometres south of Raipur by late Thursday morning. The agency expects the system to fade later in the day. At the same time, forecasters have identified a fresh low‑pressure area that formed over the southern Andaman Sea on Thursday morning. This new disturbance is projected to intensify into a depression over the southeast Bay of Bengal by 31 October and could drift west‑northwestward toward the Andhra coast in the following two days.
In eastern Madhya Pradesh, the IMD warned of heavy to very heavy rain and wind speeds of 40‑50 km/h across nine districts, including Sidhi, Singrauli, Rewa and Satna. While the weakened system will not cross into Madhya Pradesh, it is moving toward Bihar, and the department expects the weather to clear by Saturday.
Six districts of Jharkhand – Garhwa, Palamu, Latehar, Lohardaga, Gumla and Simdega – are under an orange alert for heavy rain until the morning of 30 October. Rainfall measurements recorded at Gudabanda in East Singhbhum reached 71.4 mm since Wednesday evening, the highest in the state, while Ranchi logged 26.2 mm. The deputy director of the Ranchi Meteorological Centre, Abhishek Anand, indicated that the downpour will continue on Thursday, though the Santhal region is likely to experience lighter impacts.
Ground impact across affected states
Across Andhra Pradesh, the storm has already damaged paddy and banana crops in Guntur district, threatening the harvest season for local farmers. In West Bengal, the weakening depression continued to produce heavy rain on Thursday, with the IMD forecasting further precipitation into Friday before the system dissipates.
Odisha’s Ganjam district faces a humanitarian crisis as floodwaters have isolated roughly 2,000 residents. State Chief Secretary Anu Garg disclosed that more than 200 villages in 22 blocks of Ganjam and neighbouring Gajapati districts have been severely affected, and a segment of National Highway 326 linking Ganjam with Mohana has been washed away. The state plans to airlift about 100 villagers from the hardest‑hit areas of Sanakhemundi, Asika and Gopalpur, though Indian Coast Guard helicopters remain on standby as low clouds and ongoing rain hinder flight operations.
In the coastal stretch of Srikakulam district, the Nagavali River was measured just one centimetre below its warning level at noon on Thursday and continued to rise, while the Bahuda River, fed by releases from an Odisha dam, pushed floodwaters into the border town of Ichchapuram. The rising waters forced the closure of a railway bridge between Ichchapuram and Jhadupudi, prompting the cancellation of the Brahmapur‑Visakhapatnam passenger and express services as well as the Visakhapatnam‑Brahmapur passenger train. Several long‑distance services, including the Falaknuma Express to Howrah, were rerouted via Vizianagaram and Titlagarh, bypassing stations such as Srikakulam Road, Palasa and Bhubaneswar.
Elsewhere, the IMD warned of isolated thunderstorms with lightning and gusty winds across twelve districts of Telangana on Thursday, following the earlier spell of rain that accompanied Arnab’s passage. Conversely, the state of Kerala saw a marked reduction in rainfall, allowing daytime temperatures to climb as the storm moved away.
Relief operations and political response
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, responding to the disaster, contacted the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Odisha and Chhattisgarh on Thursday. In a post on the social platform X, Shah affirmed that “teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) have sprung into action and are continuing rescue and relief operations on a war footing.” He pledged “every assistance to mitigate the hardship of the people in the face of the disaster.”
State disaster agencies have mobilised resources in line with the central government’s assurances. In Andhra Pradesh, officials are preparing for the potential impact of the new low‑pressure system that could develop into a depression over the Bay of Bengal later this week. In Odisha, the air‑lift operation is being coordinated with the Indian Coast Guard, while local authorities continue to assess damage to infrastructure and agricultural assets.
Political activity in the region has also shifted in response to the emergency. Candidates contesting the upcoming civic body elections in Visakhapatnam, scheduled for 1 November, paused their campaign rallies to assist with relief and restoration work. Both ruling‑alliance and opposition members visited affected neighbourhoods, helping residents and coordinating with municipal officials to restore essential services.
Residents of Visakhapatnam, still recalling the devastation caused by Cyclone Hudhud in 2014, shared their experiences on social media, noting similarities in power outages, uprooted trees and disrupted mobile networks, even though Arnab did not make a direct landfall in the city. The collective memory of Hudhud underscored the heightened anxiety as communities faced renewed threats from heavy rain and wind.
As the depression weakens, authorities remain vigilant. The IMD expects the system to lose its cyclonic characteristics by midnight on 28 October, transitioning into a deep depression before dissipating. Meanwhile, rescue teams continue to monitor river levels, maintain flood‑relief shelters and distribute essential supplies to displaced families across the affected states.
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