New cyclone warning issued, Delta districts on alert

According to the Indian Metrological Department (IMD) and the Area Cyclone Warning Centre in Chennai, the depression has changed into a deep depression and is expected to turn into a cyclone in 24 hours.

Although, the course of the storm is expected to turn further north, the Nagapattinam district administration urged the farmers to prepare their fields by following the guidelines as instructed by the Principal Secretary of Agriculture, Gagandeep Singh Bedi.

Nagapattinam Collector Dr S Suresh Kumar, who visited the villages in the district, asked the farmers to pick up all the ripe and tender coconuts from their trees. They have also been advised to trim the heavy branches of the trees. They were also asked to stop watering their trees for the next four days until December 16, so that their roots will become rigid without water, and thus would offer a better grip to the soil.

Meanwhile, officials advised the farmers, who cultivate fruits such as mangoes, jackfruit, cash crops such as cashew nuts, and neem, millettia (pungai) and thespesia (poovarasu), to trim their branches to allow air flow through the trees, and thus avoiding a head-on impact.  The fruit farmers have been advised to avoid laying manure and compost too.

Similarly, banana farmers were asked to make inlets and outlets around their trees to avoid water accumulation around the trees. Farmers who cultivate paddy, pulses, millets, grams, cotton, sugarcane, and groundnut have also been asked to make ridges and furrows to avoid water inundation in their fields.

The Regional Meteorological Center (RMC) predicted the formation of a new cyclonic storm in the next 36 hours, bringing heavy rainfall in Chennai, North TN and Puducherry this weekend. “The depression moved north-westwards over southeast Bay of Bengal. It is located 1,330 km off Andhra Pradesh. It is very likely to intensify further into a deep depression during the next 12 hours and into a cyclonic storm during the subsequent 24 hours,” said S Balachandran, deputy director general of RMC. It is very likely to move northwestwards towards Andhra Pradesh and adjoining north TN coast during the next 72 hours. While the other parts of the state will experience light to moderate rain, thundershower will occur at many places over north coastal TN and Puducherry. On Sunday, a caution has been placed over the adjoining southwest Bay of Bengal.