The India Meteorological Department officials stated that Cyclone Tauktae has weakened into a severe cyclonic storm from a “very severe” storm on Tuesday morning. The cyclone made Indian Navy to dispatch INS Kolkata and INS Kochi to SAR operations near Mumbai coastline.

Stealth-guided missile destroyer, INS Kolkata rescued two survivors from the life raft of vessel Vara Prabha on May 17. In another Search and Rescue operation (SAR) near Mumbai coastline it had rushed, responding to SOS calls to help two barges in Bombay high oil fields with 137 and 293 people onboard.

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In preparation for the cyclone, over 200,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Gujarat on Monday.

Tauktae made landfall over the Gujarat coast on Monday night and weakened into a severe cyclonic storm from a very severe cyclonic storm the next morning. The system is very likely to re-curve north-northeastwards, across Gujarat and weaken gradually, after the landfall which was completed on Tuesday morning. It is expected to weaken gradually and transform into a depression over Rajasthan.

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Mumbai witnessed heavy rains, strong winds, and waterlogging as Tauktae skirted the city’s coast on Monday, growing from a Category 1 storm to a Category 4 storm. As the city dealt with the first severe cyclone of 2021, Covid-19 patients were shifted from Jumbo Covid centres. Additionally, the vaccination was halted in many parts of the city.