News from malkangiri

Malkangiri is one of the tribal dominated district situated in the southern part of Odisha, sharing boundary to Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. The history of Malkangiri seems to be in no way less thrilling and adventurous than any other place of India. The land of dense inaccessible forests, small but beautiful rivers, undulating plateaus and splendorous rich tribal culture, Malkangiri has its history of human civilization enrooted to as long as 2500 years back. It is believed that during the reign of Lord Ramachandra, Malkangiri occupied an important place in the entire ‘Ramayana’. In the bank of the holy river “Tamasa “Saint Valmiki wrote ‘The Ramayana’, the holiest book of the Hindus. This place was known as “Malyavantagiri” in the Ramayana. Also during the period of the Mahabharata, this place became the point of attraction for the Pandavas. They spent their ‘Angyatvasa’ (exile) for a period of one year in the dense forests of Malkangiri. This district is a home to primitive Bonda tribe; those are believed to be part of the first wave of migration out of Africa about 60,000 years ago and were the first forest settlers in India. Anthropologists say that they are members of a group of Austroasiatic tribes, who at some time in the ancient past migrated and settled in an area of about 130 sq km in the wild. Since many years Malkangiri district has become a safe heaven for Naxals.