Cyclonic storm Mandous made landfall off Mamallapuram near here late on Friday influencing moderate to heavy rainfall in coastal Tamil Nadu.

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"The process of cyclonic storm's landfall has started, it is going on," Head-IMD Regional Meterological Centre, S Balachandran told PTI.

Under the influence of the cyclonic storm's passage into land, moderate to heavy rainfall, accompanied by gale wind was witnessed in several coastal regions.

Mandous is all set to weaken, following the landfall, to a deep depression and later a depression on Saturday. Earlier on Friday, it had weakened from a severe cyclonic storm to a cyclonic storm.

Mandous, pronounced 'man-dous' is an Arabic word and it means treasure box and the name was reportedly picked by the United Arab Emirates.

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Balachandran earlier told reporters that between Chennai and Puducherry, 12 cyclones have crossed the coast in the past 130 years from 1891 to 2021. "If this cyclone crosses the coast near Mamallapuram, it will be the 13th cyclone to cross the coast (between Chennai and Puducherry).

As many as 16,000 police personnel and 1,500 Home guards have been deployed here for security, relief and rescue tasks, and a 40-member team of TN State Disaster Response Force, in addition to 12 District Disaster Response Force teams, are on standby, police said.

Already, nearly 400 personnel of the NDRF and State Disaster Response Force teams have been stationed in coastal regions, including those near the Cauvery delta areas.