Cyclone ‘Montha’ Brewing Over Bay of Bengal, Likely to Hit Tamil Nadu Coast on Sunday

A low pressure area formed over South East Bay of Bengal today is expected to intensify into a deep depression and then into a cyclonic storm ‘Montha’ on Sunday morning, the Met office has predicted.

This is in addition to the depression in east central and adjoining south east Arabian Sea, the weather office said in its latest update.

With the Northeast monsoon getting active and the heavy rains last week due to the low-pressure area having caused destruction of standing crops in the Cauvery delta region, cyclone Montha is expected to lash the coastal districts and interior Tamil Nadu.

The sea too might be rough with fishermen advised to stay off from venturing into fishing. There was a sigh of huge relief when the previous low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal got weakened and moved towards coastal Andhra Pradesh.

Christening of the impending cyclone as ‘Montha’, was suggested by Thailand and in the Thai language it means ‘fragrant flower’ or ‘beautiful flower’.

Most of Tamil Nadu came under a wet spell under the impact of the NE monsoon, Chief Minister MK Stalin held a review meeting with top officials at the Secretariat on the precautionary measures to be taken by the district administrations and the state machinery.

The DMK government is facing opposition onslaught on its lack of rain preparedness as a huge volume of paddy kept for procurement by farmers at the Direct Procurement Centres (DPCs) in the Delta districts got damaged in the recent rains.

The union Government has deputed a team of officials to ascertain the need to hike the moisture content in paddy from the existing 17 percent to 21 percent. This follows the State demanding expeditious procurement by the Food Corporation of India (FCI).