MPPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 8 of 100

Correct — C, Montha. Severe Cyclonic Storm Montha formed over the Bay of Bengal and crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast near Kakinada on the evening of 28 October 2025, with sustained winds of about 90-100 km/h gusting to 110 km/h. It brought torrential rain and flooding to coastal Andhra Pradesh, Yanam and adjoining Odisha, damaged tens of thousands of hectares of crops, and forced the evacuation of over 76,000 people. The name Montha was contributed by Thailand to the RSMC New Delhi naming list and means 'fragrant flower'.

• (a)Fengal — Fengal did hit the east coast, but a year earlier — it made landfall near Puducherry on 30 November 2024 and flooded Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Wrong year, not October 2025.
• (b)Shakti — The sharpest trap: Shakhti was indeed a severe cyclonic storm in early October 2025, but it formed over the Arabian Sea — the west side — moved west-southwestwards away from the Indian mainland and never affected the eastern coast.
• (d)Asna — Asna was an Arabian Sea system of late August 2024 that moved off the Gujarat–Kutch coast towards Oman — a rare August cyclone, and again on the western side, not the eastern coast.

The India Meteorological Department is the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre (RSMC) for the north Indian Ocean, so it tracks, classifies and names every cyclone in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. Names are drawn in rotation from a list contributed by 13 member countries, and each name is used only once. IMD grades intensity by 3-minute sustained wind speed: Depression 31-49 km/h, Deep Depression 50-61, Cyclonic Storm 62-88, Severe Cyclonic Storm 89-117, Very Severe 118-166, Extremely Severe 167-221 and Super Cyclone 222 km/h and above.

Current-affairs cyclone questions are almost always solved by pairing three things: the name, the coast it struck, and the month/year. Build a running table as each storm occurs. For 2024-25 the essentials are Asna (Aug 2024, Arabian Sea), Dana (Oct 2024, Odisha), Fengal (Nov-Dec 2024, Tamil Nadu-Puducherry), Shakhti (early Oct 2025, Arabian Sea) and Montha (late Oct 2025, Andhra Pradesh).

• Montha crossed the Andhra Pradesh coast near Kakinada on the night of 28 October 2025 as a severe cyclonic storm
• Landfall winds were about 90-100 km/h, gusting to 110 km/h; over 76,000 people were evacuated and more than 38,000 hectares of crops damaged
• The name Montha was given by Thailand and means 'fragrant flower'; cyclone names in this basin are assigned by IMD as RSMC New Delhi
• Shakhti (named by Sri Lanka) was the other severe cyclonic storm of October 2025, but over the Arabian Sea, moving away from India
• IMD calls a system a 'Severe Cyclonic Storm' when sustained winds are 89-117 km/h

• Matching a remembered cyclone name to the wrong year — Fengal (2024) versus Montha (2025)
• Ignoring the coast named in the question: Shakhti and Asna were Arabian Sea (west coast) systems
• Assuming 'severe cyclonic storm' is a loose adjective — it is a defined IMD category (89-117 km/h)

MPPSC asks this almost every year as 'which cyclone affected coast X in month/year Y'; UPSC prefers the mechanism — why cyclones form where they do, storm-surge risk and mangrove protection.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Tropical cyclones over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea are named by:

  • (a)the India Meteorological Department, as the RSMC for the north Indian Ocean
  • (b)the World Meteorological Organization headquarters at Geneva
  • (c)the National Disaster Management Authority
  • (d)the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

  Answer(a) IMD, functioning as RSMC New Delhi, using a rotating list contributed by 13 member countries of the region.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the IMD classification, a tropical system with sustained wind speeds of 89-117 km/h is termed a:

  • (a)Deep Depression
  • (b)Cyclonic Storm
  • (c)Severe Cyclonic Storm
  • (d)Very Severe Cyclonic Storm

  Answer(c) Severe Cyclonic Storm — a Cyclonic Storm is 62-88 km/h and a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm 118-166 km/h.