🌧️ India got less rain. UP got way too much.

Good morning. Happy October.

October is when India seems to change colour every few days. Festivals, food, music, lights and traditions start showing up across the country.

And if you’re already mentally in festival mode, same.

But before we get there, the monsoon left India with a strange ending: less rain overall, but too much of it in parts of Uttar Pradesh.

That, a rescued baby elephant, and a trip to Mizoram. Shall we?

A 3–4-day-old elephant calf was swept nearly 5 km down the swollen Teesta River in West Bengal before five fishermen spotted it and pulled it to safety.

Forest officials later found its herd and reunited the calf with its mother, who began nursing it soon after.

A very long detour back to mum.

India ended the 2026 southwest monsoon with 12.6% less rainfall than the long-period average, making it the weakest season in more than a decade.

El Niño played a major role, reducing rainfall across large parts of the country between June and September. More here →

But Uttar Pradesh saw the opposite

On Sunday, UP received 45.1 mm of rain in 24 hours, compared with its normal daily average of just 1.8 mm for the period.

Fifty-six of the state's 75 districts recorded excessive rainfall, damaging homes, crops and roads in several areas.

So how can both be true?

A national monsoon average tells us how much rain India received over four months.

It does not tell us whether that rain was spread evenly across the country or arrived in short, intense bursts.

In UP, a depression formed over the Bay of Bengal and moved inland, carrying large amounts of moisture into the state.

That is why India can end the season with a rainfall deficit while one region still sees very heavy rain and flooding. Read why UP saw such heavy rain → 

Why it matters

Less rain overall can hurt crops and reservoirs. But a few days of extreme rain can still flood homes, damage standing crops and overwhelm cities.

India can be short of rain and still pay the price for too much of it at once.

Quick five-second India trivia break. No Googling.

Scroll to the end for the answer.

Mizoram held its first Pluck & Pay Festival from September 23 to 25 in Tualte and Chawngtlai villages in Khawzawl district.

Visitors could walk through kiwi and passion-fruit orchards, tomato farms, banana plantations and bean farms, pick fresh produce themselves and buy it directly from growers.

The festival links tourism directly with local livelihoods, bringing visitors to farms, homestays, food stalls, artisans and nearby cultural sites.

In Tualte alone, more than 200 households are involved in tomato cultivation, producing over 1 lakh quintals and generating more than ₹14 crore. More details →

Would you actually try this on a trip? Because I would.

Sources: Mizoram Tourism, Government of Mizoram

Consider this your mid-newsletter scroll break

🚕 Delhi: The Delhi High Court has sought responses from Uber, Ola and Rapido over a PIL raising concerns about women's safety in app-based cabs.

🧾 GST: The GST Council's October 7 meeting is expected to focus on process reforms, while the government says IDBI Bank's disinvestment remains on track.

📱 Technology: Smartphone prices in India jumped 16% in the first half of the year as buyers increasingly moved toward more expensive devices.

🏺 World: Archaeologists in Turkey have discovered a 2,100-year-old shipwreck carrying 122 varieties of ancient Roman tableware.

🌾 Agriculture: The Union Cabinet has approved higher MSPs for six rabi crops for the 2027–28 marketing season.

🏹 Sports: India's women's compound archery team beat China for Asian Games gold and matched the existing world record in the final.

💰 Economy: India's fiscal deficit reached about ₹7.1 lakh crore between April and August, around 42% of the government's full-year target.

Northeast