New Delhi, Oct. 29 -- The El Niño in the Pacific is literally off-the-charts and may gain "unprecedented" strength by December, the World Meteorological Organization warned in an update last week. It simply means the world is entering uncharted territory. By now, it's almost certain that the 2026-27 El Niño will be the strongest ever, surpassing past extreme weather events seen in 2015-16, and way back in 1877-78 when millions perished in India and China.

The ongoing El Niño's first casualty was the south-west monsoon, which recorded a deficit of 13%, the widest since 2015.

The impacts are already being felt in crops such as rice, sugarcane, maize and pulses. Prices of these crops are already rising. A bigger worry is the...