Orissa is a state on the northeastern coast of India.  It receives few visitors despite the fame of the Sun Temple at Konarak and the Jagannath Temple in Puri.  The capital of the state of Orissa, Bhubaneswar, has some of the finest temples in India, dating from the 600's. 

People:  For Orissa's total population, see the Facts in brief table with this article.  Orissa is one of the least densely populated states of India.  About a quarter of the population are tribal and live mainly in the inland districts.  Orissa is one of the major Hindu states in India.  About 97 per cent of the population are Hindus.  The majority speak Oriya, an Indo-European language, but there are also many minor languages and dialects.  

There are about 60 adivasi (ancient inhabitants) or tribal groups living in forest and remote hill regions of the state.  Some of them have remained almost untouched by modern civilization.  Each group has its own language, social customs, and artistic, music, and dance traditions.  Several groups still use bows and arrows to hunt (hunting is a main source of food) and to defend themselves against enemies.  

The Kondhs, who live mostly in the western districts, used to carry out human sacrifice.  Today, they have replaced this with animal sacrifice, which they perform at the time of sowing seeds.  The aim of the sacrifice is to ensure a good crop.  The Bondas live in the Khairaput block of the Malkangiri district.  They live in the remoter high hills and grow rice in forest clearings.  The Santhals come from the northern districts of Mayurbhanji and Balasore.  Their language is one of the oldest in India.  In the northwestern industrial belt, people have abandoned their aboriginal lifestyle to work in the steel mills in that region.  

Despite rapid industrial growth, Orissa is one of the least urbanized states in India.  Nearly 90 per cent of the people live in rural areas.  Bhubaneswar, the capital, is the state's largest city.  

Government:  Orissa took its present form in 1949.  It has 21 elected members in the Lok Sabha (lower house) and 10 elected representatives in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) of the Indian national parliament.  Orissa has only one legislative chamber, its state legislative assembly.  It has 147 seats.  There are 27 administrative districts.

Agriculture:  The traditional farming method in Orissa was shifting cultivation.  The farmers made clearings in the forest, cultivated them for a few years, and then left them to recover their natural fertility.  Even as recently as the 1960's, shifting cultivators removed more than 3 million hectares of forest every year.  Since then, settled farming in the hills has developed extensively.  Rice and millet dominate farming in the interior of Orrisa.  Rice is grown on 90 per cent of the fertile plains of the Mahanadi Delta.  There are also small areas of gram (lentils), jute, oilseeds, and ragi (a grain crop).  

Forests cover about 40 per cent of the state.  The main forest products are sal (a timber tree), teak, medicinal plants, and lac (a resin used for varnishes).  

Manufacturing:  Since the early 1980's, there have been major developments in industry in Orissa.  Aluminium smelting plants use local bauxite (aluminium-bearing ore) and hydroelectricity.  There is a steelworks at Rourkela.  Some of the development has taken place with the help of overseas aid.  Despite recent growth, Orissa still provides only 3 per cent of India's factory employment.  The Industrial Development Corporation in Orissa organizes cable works, cement works, spinning and textile mills, and the steelworks.  

Local Crafts:  Various traditional crafts operate on a commercial basis.  Craft workers carve delicate images, bowls, and plates out of soft soapstone, hard konchila stone, or multi-coloured serpentine stone from Khiching.  In Parlakhemundi and Cuttack, people carve buffalo horn into small, flat figures of animals and birds.  

Silver filigree is the most famous work of the Cuttack jewellers.  They turn fine silver wire into intricate objects such as small boxes and trays with floral patterns.  The tribal metal casting in the dhokra style by the lost wax process flourishes in the Mayurbhanj district.  Metal workers place a clay shell around a wax core and pour a molten metal into the shape.  The wax melts away and the metal fills the space.  

Other traditional crafts include wood carving, inlay of ivory on wood, and the making of papier-mache masks.  Picture makers, particularly from the village of Raghurajpur near Puri, paint pattachitras on specially prepared cloth.  They coat the cloth with earth to stiffen it and finish it with lacquer after painting. 

Textile weaving has been a traditional handicraft throughout Orissa for generations.  Thousands of people work in this cottage industry.  The favourite designs include rows of flowers, birds, animals (particularly elephants), and geometric shapes, using either tussore (silk) or cotton yarn.  Colourful applique work, decorating embroidered cloth for use in temples, is done near Puri.  Roadside shops sell items for the house and garden, such as sun umbrellas and cushion covers.  

Another skill that is still practiced is palm leaf etching.  A sharp iron "pen" is held motionless against the hard leaf of the palmyra palm.  Moving the leaf produces lines upon it.  This was the way in which early books were produced, and helped to give the Oriya script its rounded form.  Beautifully illustrated manuscripts are still produced in this way.  

Mining:  The ancient rocks of inland Orissa contain some of India's richest mineral resources.  The proven reserves of coal are estimated at about 44,305 million metric tons.  There are thick seams of coal in the mines at Talcher, 100 kilometres to the northwest of Bhubaneswar.  Around Bhubaneswar, and at several other sites in the interior, there are important bauxite deposits.  Bauxite mining began there in the 1980's.  

Orissa also has reserves of dolomite, iron ore, manganese, and limestone.  The far north of the state, especially between Keonjihar and Rourkela, has enormous reserves of high-grade iron.  There are also important reserves of chromite, graphite, ilmenite, and mica.  

Mining began only after independence in 1947.  A new port at Paradwip handles mineral exports. 

Orissa has well above the national average length of roads per square kilometre.  National highways run down the old coast road and across the north of the state, as part of the link between Calcutta and Mumbai.  The rail network is less extensive.  Parts of the interior remain remote.  Some of the hills in the southwest are still forested, and few roads have been developed. 

In the early 1990's about half of Orissa's villages had television and 90 per cent had radio.  Although there are regional as well as national newspapers, less than 1 per cent of the population read a daily newspaper.

Location and Description:  Orissa is bounded by West Bengal and Bihar to the north, Madhya Pradesh to the west, and Andhra Pradesh to the south.  To the southeast lies the Bay of Bengal.  The whole of the state is south of the Tropic of Cancer, and midway between the semitropical, wet deltas of Bengal and the much drier tropical interior of the Peninsula.  

In the far north is the ancient, volcanic Simlipal Massif.  It rises to a height of more than 1,000 metres from the surrounding plateau and is a continuation of the Chota Nagpur region.  In the south, a series of hills known as the Eastern Ghats rises to heights of 1,500 metres.  Also in the south of the state are the beautiful lakes of Khairaput.  Between these two regions are gently rolling plains.  

Down the east coast runs a flat alluvial plain, with the Mahanadi Delta at the centre.  Occasional low mounds of granite, such as the hill at Dhauli, break the otherwise straight horizon.  The delta stretches nearly 170 kilometres.  In many places, the delta is more than 80 kilometres wide.  The Hirakund Dam, one of the largest in Asia, controls the Mahanadi River, which used to do great damage during the flood season.  There is a huge reservoir behind the dam.  The Hirakund Dam Project is a multipurpose river valley project to provide irrigation, power generation, flood control, and navigation.  

The natural vegetation of the highlands of Orissa is dense, deciduous forest.  The forest area decreased greatly in the 1980's due to extensive felling of trees and the clearing of land for cultivation.  

Because great areas of forest have been settled by farmers, the habitat of bison, elephants, tigers, and other large animals that were once widespread has been reduced.  They are now largely confined to the game reserves.  In the Simlipal region there are still chital (spotted deer), flying squirrels, gaur (wild ox), leopard, sambar (large deer), and wolves.  There is also a variety of wild fowl including mynas, parakeets, and peacocks.  

Rivers and Lakes:  Most rivers flow southeast through the state from the peninsular plateau to the Bay of Bengal.  The Mahanadi and the Brahmani are two of the larger ones.  They rise in the forested hills and enter the sea across the Mahanadi Delta.  Other important rivers are the Subarnarekha, the Rushikulya, and the Tel.  There are several artificially created and natural lakes in the hills of the interior.  Lake Chilika is the largest coastal lagoon in India.  It varies in size from 900 to 1,200 square kilometres.  Water in the lagoon alternates between being salty and being fresh.  Although the lagoon is large, it is only a few metres deep.  It has a very rich marine and bird life. 

Temperatures vary according to altitude.  On the plains around Bhubaneswar, just south of the Tropic of Cancer, the average maximum temperature in December, the coldest month, is 28° C, and minimum temperatures do not fall below 16° C. In April and May, the hottest months, maximum temperatures soar to 38° C. The average minimum temperature from April to September is between 25° C and 27° C. 

Annual rainfall along the coast decreases southward from nearly 160 centimetres at Balasore to just over 110 centimetres at Chatrapur.  But the inland hills in the far southwest receive much more rain than the nearby coastal strip.  The major part of Orissa has one of the shortest dry seasons in India with only January and February being rainless.