Director of Area Cyclone Warning Centre S Balachandran says the depression may move towards Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh by December 6.

A well-marked low pressure area over southeast Bay of Bengal is likely to become a depression and move towards Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh by December 6, the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) said on Monday.

The Director of Area Cyclone Warning Centre, S Balachandran, said the system was likely to turn into a depression in the next 24 hours.

“Around December 6 [Wednesday], it is likely to move northwestwards towards north Tamil Nadu and south Andhra Pradesh coasts,” he told reporters in Chennai.

In the next 24 hours, isolated rainfall was likely in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and fishermen should not venture into “deep” parts of southern Bay of Bengal for fishing, he said.

In the last 24 hours ended 8.30 a.m. on Monday, there were isolated rains in one or two places in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Aranmanaiputhur in Theni district of Tamil Nadu recorded the highest of 6 cm of rainfall in this period, he said.

The “very severe cyclonic storm Ockhi” over eastcentral and the adjoining southeast Arabian Sea moved further northwards and lay centred at 5.30 a.m. on Monday over the eastcentral Arabian Sea, about 590 km north-northwest of Amini Divi, 690 km south-southwest of Mumbai and 870 km south-southwest of Surat.

Ockhi hits life in Kanyakumari district

Ockhi, which crippled life in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, and parts of Kerala, was “very likely to move north-northeastwards, weaken gradually and cross south Gujarat and adjoining north Maharashtra coasts near Surat as a deep depression by the midnight” of December 5, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.

Tamil Nadu government officials said the process of assessing the damage in Kanyakumari was on and a report would be sent to the Centre later.

On Friday, Chief Minister K Palaniswami told Prime Minister Narendra Modi over phone that the State would soon send a request to the Centre seeking financial assistance post Ockhi damage in the district.

In Kanyakumari, Ockhi damaged standing plantation crops and power infrastructure even as people were rescued from flooded localities last week.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said a total of 357 fishermen, including 71 from Tamil Nadu, stranded in sea due to cyclone Ockhi, were rescued.

Earlier on Monday, Mr. Palaniswami reviewed the rescue and rehabilitation work in Kanyakumari with senior IAS officials.