After hitting the Maharashtra coast with wind speeds of up to 120 kmph on Wednesday afternoon, Cyclone Nisarga weakened into a 'cyclonic storm' in the evening, the India Meteorological Department said.
The process of landfall, which began at 12.30 PM at Alibaug, had completed by 2.30 PM, IMD director general Mrutunjay Mohapatra said.
By 4 PM, the cyclone had started weakening with wind speeds of 90-100 kilometres per hour.
The storm currently lays over Raigad and Pune districts. The current wind speed of the storm has also reduced to 65-75 kilometres per hour, the IMD said in a bulletin at 6.30 PM.
The cyclone will further weaken into a deep depression by late night, the IMD bulletin said.
Although the cyclone made the landfall just 95 kilometres from Mumbai, the metropolitan city largely escaped its wrath.
Thousands of people had been evacuated in coastal Maharashtra and south Gujarat, trains rescheduled, flights cancelled and fishermen ordered out of the seas as the region braced for the cyclone.
