Cyclone ‘Nilam’: Name contributed by Pakistan!

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: After displacing around 150,000 people cyclone ‘Nilam’ finally weakened on Thursday, much to the relief of locals and the administration. It had crossed Tamil Nadu coast north of Chennai last evening between Mamallapuram and Kalpakkam. However, it did not result in any serious destruction of life and property. Nonetheless, people are not likely to forget the horrifying experience that this storm brought about. But what is interesting is that cyclones like ‘Nilam’ while instilling a sense of fear in everyone are always given a catchy name. Ever wondered why? Sample some of the names of tropical cyclones - Mala, Rashmi, Nargis and Bijli. As per a survey by the India Today group, several countries are involved in the procedure of naming a particular cyclone. The entire process happens under the guidance of the World Meteorological Organization. For the Indian Ocean region, deliberations for naming cyclones began in 2000 and a formula was agreed upon in 2004. Whenever a tropical cyclone is about to hit a region, a pre-sequentially assigned name is given to it. In the Indian Ocean region eight countries contribute in assigning a name to a cyclone. The countries are - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman and Thailand. This time, the name of cyclone ‘Nilam’ was a contribution of our neighbor Pakistan. The next names which are in queue are Mahasen (from Sri Lanka) and Phailin (from Thailand). If not for this naming procedure, communicating alerts for various different cyclones would have been difficult.