As many as 39 people have perished and 167 fishermen were still missing after cyclone Ockhi hit the Tamil Nadu and Kerala coasts while 809 others were swept away to Maharashtra, the Union Home Ministry said yesterday. Joint Secretary in the ministry Sanjeev Kumar Jindal also said the cyclone was slowing down and would have no impact in Gujarat, where the first of the two-phased assembly elections is due four days later. It was expected to make landfall in Surat by midnight yesterday. The cyclonic storm passed the Mumbai coast bringing rains in its wake but did not cause any damage to life or property, a senior civic official said.

DMK working president M K Stalin at a banana field badly hit by cyclone Ockhi, in Kanyakumari. Pic/PTI