The cyclone, that has now weakened into storms, first made landfall near the coastal Tamil Nadu town of Marakkanam - 30 kilometres north of Puducherry at around 2:30 a.m. More than 200,000 residents from this area were earlier evacuated to safer regions to avoid loss of life.
Residents of the cyclone-hit regions have been relentlessly sharing updates on Nivar on social media along with bone-chilling videos of the situation. Bodies of water in the area have been overflowing due to the strong cyclonic storms.
WARNING: The following footage is disturbing and may offend sensibilities
Snippets of an Indian Coast Guard vessel deployed off the coast of Chennai – the densely populated capital of Tamil Nadu have also made it to Twitter.
Some areas in the region are currently waterlogged, causing additional inconvenience to people in urgent situations.
At present, the cyclonic winds are blowing at a speed of 90-100 kilometres per hour (kmph), occasionally reaching a 110 kmph velocity.
In the next three hours, Nivar is projected to move northwest and further weaken into a cyclonic storm, according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).