India, Dec. 18 -- Layers of sand deposits have turned once-green agricultural lands into barren fields in villages west of Assam's Lakhimpur district, which shares a boundary with Biswanath district.

Villages that are usually busy with harvest activities during this time of the year now look desolate and lifeless, as paddy fields are covered with thick layers of sand deposited by the overflowing Sesa river during the last monsoon.

The villages of No. 1 Sesa, No. 2 Sesa, Sesa-Rangajan, Panigaon, Phutabhog, Khalihamari, and several others under the Narayanpur Revenue Circle of Lakhimpur district are now completely covered by sand deposited by the Sesa river in May-June this year.

Agricultural production has been nil in these flood-affect...