Malkangiri Forest Range - National park in Gotiguda - Malkangiri, India

Loved the scenery. Pleasant atmosphere.

After the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, the Hindu people of the then East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh, started moving in to India in huge numbers as refugees. In the initial stages the refugees were settled in West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. But soon there was no room for more people in these States. So, in 1958, the Central Government of India designed the Dandakaranya Project to resettle the Bengali refugees in parts of other States like Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. The project was also aimed at integrated development of these areas with particular regard to the preservation and promotion of interests of the local tribal population. Most of the places where the Bengalis were resettled belonged to tribal people. My maternal grandparents were among the millions of displaced people who moved into India in the mid 60s with their bunch of children among whom was my mother barely 2-3 years old. They were settled in Malkangiri in the fringes of Odisha and Chattisgarh. Malkangiri fell into the core area of the Dandakaranya Project. Since then, the Bengalis have been living alongside the tribal communities in perfect harmony with the locals and the nature. My childhood was spent in one of those remote villages in the valleys of Malkangiri where my grandparents had been provided with land and shelter by the Indian Government. And, though my mother had later migrated to Kolkata, we have been going back to the soil that is truly our home now, at least once every year. The Indian Government had not only provided land and shelter to the refugees but had also taken up developmental works in several sectors such as irrigation, agriculture, transport and forestry which have equally benefitted the tribal communities and the Bengali refugees without disturbing the serenity and characteristics of the areas. What I find in Malkangiri is the peaceful coexisting of the tribal populations and the Bengali refugees each accepting and adopting to each others' cultures and yet maintaining their own cultural identities as ever. Many of the elders of the age of my grandparents are no more and some of them still exist to tell the stories of their struggle and their eventual recourse to a place that they can happily called their 'home'. This is also essentially a paradigm of tolerance and adaptation, especially in the present global context of unrest and intolerance. In the present context of the region, there are several new problems that they population faces. One major issue is that of the constant power-play of the giant corporation in their desperation for encroachment of land in the name of industrialization. The other equally tormenting factor for the people of the region is the never ending conflict between the left extremist and the military. It seems, that the same Indian Government who had set such and unique example through the Dandakaranya Project has now either forgotten all about that or has decided to turn a blind eye to the emerging problems.

Undulating hilly terrain, miles of verdant green forest, waterfalls, blue sky and placid water bodies

Malkangiri forest is nice available in picnic palce and water fall

Nice place for weather change outing

I love this place and beautiful scene

This is the natural beauty of Malkangiri

Forest Protect Beautifully By Malkangiri Forest Rangers