severe

The cyclone is due to make landfall on Wednesday, with more than 12 million people living along its projected path.

India is evacuating tens of thousands of people from its eastern coast as a strengthening Cyclone Arnab bears down on its coastal states.

The cyclone has intensified since Monday and is expected to make landfall by Wednesday morning.

The India Meteorological Department has issued a warning for the coastal states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, saying the “very severe” cyclonic storm was centred only 260km (160 miles) southeast of the port city of Visakhapatnam, the most populous in Andhra Pradesh.

The department expects Arnab to turn northwest and cross the coast by 11:30am local time (06:00 GMT) on Wednesday, with sustained winds of 115-125km/h (71-78mph) and gusts of up to 140km/h (87mph).

Arnab formed over the Bay of Bengal, which is among the world’s main breeding grounds for tropical cyclones, frequently affecting India’s eastern coastal regions.

More than 12 million people live along the cyclone’s projected path, which runs inland and north across India, according to Andhra Pradesh’s disaster management authority.

Nearly 50,000 people had been moved to shelters from vulnerable areas of the state by Monday night, out of an estimated 400,000 in need of evacuation, the authority’s managing director, Prakhar Jain, told the Reuters news agency.

“Evacuation is continuing,” Jain said.

Railway authorities in the region said on social media that at least 12 trains had been cancelled in eastern India and services on 53 routes along the southern coast had been suspended for Tuesday and Wednesday.

In Odisha, authorities have announced plans to evacuate 48,000 people out of harm’s way, according to local newspaper The Hindu.

Authorities in neighbouring Nepal have advised tourists to stay away from high-altitude areas over concerns that Arnab could trigger heavy rain, snowstorms and avalanches in the Himalayas from Thursday night to Saturday.

The advisory comes after a Himalayan flash flood in August killed about 1,500 people in the country.

The government said customer water supplies would be uninterrupted.

Declaring a severe drought “ensures proactive steps are taken to safeguard water before any disruption occurs”.

The government’s plans include:

The government said the change to severe drought status had been prompted by specific concerns for two major reservoirs, Ardingly in West Sussex and Wimbleball in Somerset.

The latest figures, external for Wimbleball Reservoir on Exmoor show it is at 14.9% capacity, while Ardingly is 19.4% full, external. Other major reservoirs are also low, including Roadford in Devon at 36.8%, Burrator at 33.6%, Colliford in Cornwall at 35% and Stithians at 21.9%.

The Environment Agency has classed Colliford and Wimbleball as having exceptionally low levels, external

Wimbleball serves about 300,000 properties across east Devon, north Devon, Somerset, west Dorset and West Somerset. Ardingly Reservoir serves 280,000 customers across East and West Sussex.