Cyclone Ditwah impact: Tamil Nadu and Puducherry shut schools as rains kill 3, damage 57,000 ha crops; IMD issues red warning. Photo: ANI.
Chennai School Holiday: Three people have died in rain-related incidents triggered by Cyclone Ditwah in Tamil Nadu over the past 24 hours, state revenue and disaster management minister KKSSR Ramachandran said on Sunday. He added that nearly 150 cattle had died and around 57,000 hectares of farmland in the delta region had been damaged due to the cyclone’s impact.
“Three people have lost their lives in rain-related incidents since last evening. While two persons died due to wall collapse in Tuticorin and Thanjavur, respectively, a 20-year-old youth died due to electrocution in Mayiladuthurai,” Ramachandran said during a briefing at the State Emergency Operations Centre.
The minister noted that inundation caused by the cyclone had severely affected crops across several districts.
“Crops in about 24,000 hectares in Nagapattinam district, over 15,000 hectares in Tiruvarur district and about 8,000 hectares in Mayiladuthurai district are affected,” he said. Overall, approximately 56,000 hectares had been impacted, he added.
Ramachandran said district authorities would conduct a comprehensive assessment once floodwaters recede. “After the floodwater recedes, district officials will calculate the actual damage and accordingly the Chief Minister will announce a compensation to farmers,” he said.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Cyclone Ditwah, responsible for killing more than 300 people in Sri Lanka, was positioned around 80 km east of Jaffna (Sri Lanka), 140 km southeast of Vedaranniyam (Tamil Nadu), and 280 km south-southeast of Puducherry.
A red category warning had been issued for north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, and the adjoining south Andhra Pradesh coastline.
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In an evening update on November 30, the IMD announced that Ditwah had weakened into a deep depression over the southwest Bay of Bengal and the adjacent north Tamil Nadu–Puducherry coast.
The storm “moved northwards with a speed of 5 kmph, weakened into a Deep Depression and lay centered over the same region around 5.30 pm,” the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai said.
At that time, it was located:
90 km east of Cuddalore
130 km northeast of Karaikal
90 km east-southeast of Puducherry
180 km north-northeast of Vedaranniyam
140 km south-southeast of Chennai
“The minimum distance of the centre of the deep depression from north Tamil Nadu–Puducherry coasts is about 80 km,” the RMC added.
The system is expected to continue moving nearly northwards, parallel to the Tamil Nadu–Puducherry coast, and weaken further into a depression by December 1 morning.
The IMD has also forecast a 2–3°C drop in minimum temperatures over the next two days across parts of northwest and east India.
Minimum temperatures currently stand at:
Below 6°C in many areas of Jammu and Kashmir
Below 6°C at isolated locations in Punjab
6–10°C across Uttarakhand, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and West Uttar Pradesh
At isolated points over north Rajasthan and West Madhya Pradesh
On November 29, schools and colleges across several Tamil Nadu districts were closed following IMD’s warning of very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall linked to Cyclone Ditwah. The state witnessed intense showers, prompting authorities to declare a precautionary shutdown.
In Puducherry, all government and private schools remained closed on December 1. The decision, announced by Home and Education Minister A Namassivayam, applied to all four regions of the Union Territory.
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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