Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rain in the past week has submerged thousands of hectares of agricultural land In Eastern India damaing vast areas of rice and corn crops.

In the rice-growing state of Bihar close to one million hectares of cultivable land is said to have been submerged while officials in the eastern state of Assam, another top rice producer, said that 350,000 hectares (864,900 acres) of land had been inundated for a week now.

Assam, Uttar Pradesh and now Orissa have also been inundated after unusually heavy rain caused rivers to burst their banks.