Cyclone Ditwah highlights: Red alert issued as IMD says storm closer to Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coastline

Cyclone Ditwah: A red alert has been issued for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Cyclone Ditwah highlights: Heavy rains lashed parts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry as the cyclonic storm ‘Ditwah’ moves towards the Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coastline. A red alert has been issued for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The storm exited Sri Lanka on Saturday afternoon, killing at least 153 people, and leaving 191 others missing, Reuters news agency reported. The storm wreaked havoc in the island nation, causing floods and landslides in its wake.

Cyclone Ditwah | Key points

• In its latest bulletin on Cyclone ‘Ditwah' at 5:20 am, the IMD said that the cyclinic storm over southwest Bay of Bengal moved nearly northwards with the speed of 5 kmph and lay centered over the same region, about 80 km east of Karaikal in Puducherry .
• It was located about 100 km eastnortheast of Vedaranniyam (India), 140 km north-northeast of Jaffna (Sri Lanka), 160 km southsoutheast of Puducherry (India) and 250 km south of Chennai.
• IMD said in its bulletin, “It is very likely to move nearly northwards parallel to North Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coasts during next 24 hours. While moving northwards the cyclonic storm will be centered over southwest Bay of Bengal within a minimum distance 50 km and 25 km from the Tamil Nadu-Puducherry coastline by morning and evening of today, the 30th November respectively.”
• Meanwhile, 6,000 relief camps have been set up and 28 teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed in Tamil Nadu, minister KKSSR Ramachandran told ANI news agency.
• IMD director general of meteorology, Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, told ANI the path the storm is likely to chart after leaving Sri Lanka. "There could be a slight intensification. With this wind speed, the cyclone storm will continue to move north-northwestwards and reach near the North Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coast by 30th early morning," Mohapatra told the news agency.
• The IMD has warned of "heavy to extremely heavy rainfall" across Tamil Nadu, south Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry for the next two days.
• "This rainfall can lead to localised inundation and flooding. Especially in urban areas, flooding can occur. In hilly areas, flash-flood-like situations can also occur," Mohapatra told ANI.
• The IMD has issued a red alert for Cuddalore, Mayiladuthurai, Villupuram, Chengalpattu and Puducherry due to the possibility of extremely heavy rainfall.
• In coastal Andhra Pradesh-Yanam and Rayalaseema, light to moderate rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places is expected on Saturday, and heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places on Sunday.
• Meanwhile, in the wake of the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka, India has dispatched food items and essential relief supplies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences and pledged more assistance to help those affected by the natural disaster.
• More than 50 flights were cancelled across multiple districts in Tamil Nadu due to adverse weather, according to ANI.

Pinned

Nov 30, 2025, 09:47:06 IST

This live blog is now closed.

Updates to this live blog have now stopped. Follow latest updates related to the cyclone here.