Operation Karuna

• India has launched Operation Karuna to aid those affected by Cyclone Mocha in Myanmar.
• Three ships, INS Shivalik, INS Kamorta, and INS Savitri, arrived in Yangon with emergency relief material such as food supplies, tents, essential medicines, water pumps, portable generators, clothes, and hygiene items.

ABOUT CYCLONE MOCHA

• Cyclone Mocha has been classified as an extremely severe cyclonic storm by the IMD and a ‘Super Cyclone’ by the global weather website Zoom Earth.
• The storm emerged in the Bay of Bengal and has been recorded as the strongest all-season cyclone to form in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal since 1982, with a wind speed of 277 kmph.
• The name ‘Mocha‘ has been suggested by Yemen.
• In Myanmar, Rakhine state is the worst-hit while in Bangladesh the cyclone destroyed shelters in the world’s largest refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar which houses a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.