Massive dust storm heads towards Gujarat, Rajasthan: IMD issues alert for 12 hours

A massive dust storm was headed towards Gujarat and south Rajasthan and the effect is likely to continue till the next 12 hours, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The dust storm, which first affected normal life in Pakistan, was likely to affects parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan.

However, there would be no impact of the dust storm in Delhi, according to the weather department.

Karachi was caught off guard on Saturday morning when a dust storm that travelled from west Pakistan disturbed the normal life there with visibility reduced to less than or about 500 metres.

Winds carrying dust blew from south Pakistan areas and adjoining Arabian Sea towards Kutch and Saurashtra towards evening.

Fortunately, the dust storm will have no impact on Delhi in view of the western disturbance being very active for the next 36 hours in northwest India. "Its (dust area) forward part interacts with high moisture and intense cloud zone currently located over southwest Rajasthan. The dust layer is over Saurashtra, very far, southwest of Delhi," Jenamani said.

The 'Sand and Dust Storms Risk Assessment in Asia and the Pacific' report for 2021 published by the Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management, which is a regional institution of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, had said more than 500 million people in India and more than 80 per cent of the population of Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Iran are exposed to medium and high levels of poor air quality due to sand and dust storms.