Rainfall Deficit in Half of India’s Districts: Kharif Sowing Crawls, Paddy, Oilseeds Decline Sharply

Kharif sowing (rice, pulses, millets and oilseeds) took a hit with over half of the country’s 741 districts experiencing a rainfall deficit in the current monsoon season amid a looming El Niño threat. The acreage under these crops as of July 10 remained significantly lower than the corresponding period last year, IE reported. 

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, area coverage under paddy, the biggest crop, was reported at 114.69 lakh hectares, which is 8.6% less than 125.53 lakh hectares last year.

The progress in sowing was even slower for pulses, millets, and oilseeds. An area of 56.63 lakh hectares was reported under pulses. It was 23% higher at 73.85 lakh hectares last year. 

Sowing is likely to pick up as the rainfall deficit for the southwest monsoon has narrowed by 12 July, helped by surplus rains in early part of the month, the newspaper said. 

Live Mint reported that oilseeds have witnessed a steeper decline. Total oilseed acreage stood at 11.78 million hectares, against 14.92 million hectares last year, a deficit of 3.13 million hectares. Soybean, which is India's largest oilseed crop, was sown over 9.05 million hectares, down 1.72 million hectares from last year, while groundnut acreage declined by 1.20 million hectares.

Sugarcane was among the few exceptions. The crop covered 5.76 million hectares, 86,000 hectares higher than last year and 236,000 hectares above the normal area. Cotton sowing reached 7.95 million hectares, down 1.44 million hectares from last year and 1.63 million hectares below the normal level.

India Today reported that India's July sky looks like April as the monsoon hit pause button adding that monsoon has not failed but shifted from its normal position (across the plains, from northwest India to the head of the Bay of Bengal) to the foothills of the Himalayas. 

21 Killed in Surat; 10 in Mumbai,  3  in Pune, 9 in Wayanad, 7 in Arunachal: Flash floods, Landslides Wreak Havoc 

Flash floods, landslides disrupt normal life in several district of Arunachal. At least 97,182 people have been affected in all 26 districts. The death toll remained at seven, the Hindu reported.

21 people died in rain havoc in Surat, reported Business Standard.  Incessant rain at the start of July killed several people across the country m. Rain-triggered landslides on July 6) killed three members of a family and halted travel on the recently inaugurated 7000 cr Mumbai-Pune Expressway Missing Link, merely two months after its inauguration.

The ambitious infrastructure project – which features twin tunnels and a 183-metre cable-stayed bridge – failed to clear its first monsoon test after the landslides forced travellers back on the old Mumbai-Pune highway, the wire reported. 

In Pune in another incident Following incessant rains, a huge garbage mound at a Moshi landfill collapsed on the office of a three-year-old waste-to-energy plant on July 8. The mound of garbage fell onto the structure like a landslide killing 9 people, the Hindu reported. 

Rail services on the crucial Mumbai-Pune corridor were suspended after landslides hit the Bhor Ghat section.

Late on Sunday, a four-storeyed shanty came crashing down on another at Janata Nagar in Mumbai’s Mankhurd, killing six persons, five of them children, taking the death count in this Mumbai monsoon to 10.

The deaths in Mankhurd have taken the city’s death count this monsoon to 10 in less than a week.

Emergency workers on Sunday (July 12, 2026) recovered the body of the lone missing person following a devastating debris slip at a tunnel construction site at Kalladi in Wayanad’s Meppadi, taking the death toll in the disaster to eight. Officials said that with the recovery of his body, all missing people had now been accounted for after the massive debris slip struck near the entrance to the underconstruction Wayanad twin-tunnel road project on July 7.

Himalayan Heat Alarm: Jammu & Kashmir Warms by Nearly 1°C in Two Decades, Scientists Warn

A new study entitled “Warming of the high-mountainous climate sensitive Jammu and Kashmir during the period 1980–2024” has found that several high-altitude regions of Jammu and Kashmir have warmed by nearly 1°C over the past two decades, with mountain stations experiencing substantially faster warming than lower elevations, DTE reported. 

The outlet said the study raises fresh concerns about Himalayan glaciers, snow-fed rivers, water security and climate resilience across northern India.

The study, conducted by Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath, GS Gopikrishnan and VM Pranav Chandran of the Centre for Ocean, River, Atmosphere and Land Sciences (CORAL), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, analysed ground-based observations and atmospheric reanalysis data spanning 1980-2024.

The scientists found a clear pattern of “elevation-dependent warming, with temperatures increasing most rapidly at mountain stations such as Bhaderwah, Pahalgam and Gulmarg, while lower-elevation areas like Jammu showed comparatively weak or insignificant long-term warming.” 

The study also found that night-time minimum temperatures are rising much faster than daytime maximum temperatures, particularly during the pre-monsoon season, signalling profound changes in the Himalayan climate system.

At Least 25 People Die in Record US Heatwave Scorches Swaths of Country

There is widespread media coverage of the extreme heat affecting large areas of North America.  “at least about two dozen people have died amid the perilous climate crisis-driven heatwave that has scorched swaths of the US with record temperatures”, the Guardian reported. “As a huge heat dome sits over the county’s eastern half, extreme heat gripped millions of people in the days leading up to the US’s semiquincentennial on Saturday – and beyond it. More than 20 states have reported stifling temperatures of more than 100F (38C), marring celebrations. And more than 140 million people remained under active heat alerts across the US on Sunday.”

13 Killed in Spain's Deadly Wildfires, France Loses ‘Historic Forest’

Seven Britons are among 12 foreign nationals killed in wildfires in southern Spain, the Guardian reported citing authorities.

The newspaper said that a British couple among those killed in Spanish wildfires has been named using DNA to identify them. BBC News said that the wildfires left 13 people dead in Almeria province. A separate piece in the Guardian said Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who said: “A third of all the land that burned in Europe last year was here in Spain. That’s not just down to the fires that have traditionally happened; it’s also due to a worsening because of climate change that’s happening across the Iberian peninsula and especially in Spain.” Le Monde visualises the extent of the wildfires across Europe in recent weeks through a series of charts.

Wildfire devoured a historic forest near Paris, forcing roads to close and the use of water-bombing aircraft, Reuters reported adding that the region is suffering its third heatwave this summer, with “tinder-dry vegetation and high temperatures fuelling blazes”. Al Jazeera noted that the wildfires broke out near Fontainebleau, around 60km south-east of Paris, and by Monday morning had scorched more than 800 hectares of land. CNN reported that “the climate crisis is driving hotter, drier weather, which is setting the stage for fiercer fire seasons. They are also happening earlier in the year and are of growing intensity.”

The  extreme heat that has been affecting large parts of the continent over recent weeks triggered fires “ that burnt thousands of hectares in France, Spain and Portugal, three countries where, in some places, temperatures were predicted to reach 40C on Sunday”, Lemonde reported. The Guardian reported that “the new and still incomplete figures doubled the preliminary estimate of at least 1,000 additional deaths given by the authority last Sunday. That earlier estimate covered just three of the hottest days of extreme heat.”

Strong El Niño Will Develop Rapidly Over Coming Months, Says UN Weather Agency

The UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has “raised its forecast for the rapid emergence of a strong El Niño in the coming months, ‌warning that the phenomenon is likely to drive global temperatures higher”, reported Reuters. It quoted  Alvaro Silva, a WMO scientist, saying: “El Niño conditions have emerged ⁠in the Equatorial Pacific and there is a remarkable agreement between forecast models that this will be a strong El Niño…[It] will also give an extra boost to global temperatures.” 

In early June the WMO had forecast a moderate or possibly a strong El Nino but it said recent forecasts had given it more confidence that strong El Nino conditions are developing in the equatorial Pacific.  The effects of El Nino will be felt in different regions until the end of the year and into 2027, Silva added.

Bloomberg reported a study that said super El Niño risks straining India’s power grid more than any other electricity network globally and would slow the country’s shift away from coal, according to a new study.” The Conversation has a guest post by two academics headlined: “A Super El Niño is coming: five hard‑won lessons the world can learn from Africa.”