Situated on the coast along the Bay of Bengal, Orissa offers an excellent blend of its ancient glory and modern endeavour. The state with a rich heritage that is more than two thousand years old, has a glorious history of its own. It was known under different names in different periods : Kalinga, Utkala or Odradesh. Seaports flourished along the coast as early as the 4th and 5th centuries B.C, when the sadhabs, the Orissan seafaring merchants, went to the islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo and Bali with their merchandise. Not only did they bring home wealth and prosperity, they also carried the glorious Indian civilisation with them. The land had its martial glory in the past and the people had made their contact with kingdoms in South East Asia in ancient times. Kalinga had made its mark in the Indian history when the Nanda dynasty ruled the kingdom of Magadha. It posed a threat to the Mauryan Empire. Ashoka the Great invaded Kalinga in 261 B.C. and conquered her. But the terrible bloodshed on the banks of the river, Daya that preceded Ashoka’s victory changed his heart. He embraced Buddhism and preached peace and goodwill for the rest of his life.

The eye-catching beauty of this land is enhanced by the diversity of its natural regions. Morphologically, Orissa is divided into five natural regions : the coastal plains, the river valley and the flood plains, the rolling uplands, the plateaus and the hills and the mountains. The coastal plains upto 75m in elevation are formed by the alluvial deposits of the six major rivers - Subarnarekha, Budhabalanga, Baitarani, Brahmani, Mahanadi, Rusikulya and their tributaries and distributaries. The river valleys and flood plains are also the creations of the major rivers, mainly Mahanandi, the Brahmani and Vamsdhara. The rolling uplands have an undulating topography with their elevation varying between 100m and 300m. Situated in the sub-mountainous zones, they have a bedrock of hard soil and patches of forest growth to cover them partially. The plateaus including the subdued ones are the old peninsular table lands located in the hilly regions, their elevation varying between 305 and 610 metres. The mountainous portions of Orissa, which are also forested, cover about three-fourths of its total area and are inhabited mainly by the tribal population. The mountains are a principal source of Orissa’s natural wealth. Many of them are repositories of priceless minerals.

Orissa is a riverine state. The rivers are its lifelines; they have shaped its economic and cultural history from ancient times. As most of the people in the state depend upon agriculture for their livelihood, the role of the rivers is of prime importance to the state’s economy. The smaller rivers are Salandi, Vamsadhara, Nagavali, Kolab, Indravati, Sileru, Sabari and Poteru. By far the biggest and the most important river flowing through the heart-land of Orissa is Mahanadi with length of 853 km and catchment basin of 132,600 sq km. The state has a number of sparkling lakes both natural and artificial. The natural are Chilika, Sar, Samang with salt water and Ansupa and Kanjia with fresh water. The Chilika which is the biggest and most important of these is also the largest inland lake in the country. Lying in the southern half of Orissa’s coast land, it is a lagoon with brackish water and stretches through the districts of Puri and Ganjam, close by to the sea and opening into it in the rainy season. The Sar Lake (810 hectares) and the Samang wet-land, usually known as the Samagara pata (300-350 hectres) are two adjacent brackish water masses lying to the north-east of Puri town. These are old lagoons initially cut off from the sea by marine development which accounts for the saline water. The biggest artificial lake in Orissa is the extensive water reservoir above the Hirakud Dam known as Hirakud Lake.

There are large number of springs in Orissa. They mostly spring up in the eastern and western slopes of Eastern Ghats due to heavy rainfall. A few of them have also shot up against the impervious Gondwana gneissic bedrocks. Among them, springs namely Kapilas, Jharbada, Chandikhole, Mahavinayak, Kedar-Gouri, Barunei, Gosinga Jhar, Narayani, Nirmal Jhar, Phurlijharan, Nrusinghnath, Harishankar and Koilijharan are quite popular on account of their scenic beauty and the temples of gods and goddesses erected near their sites. The eye catching waterfalls are Barehipani, Bada Ghagra, Sana Ghagra, Pradhanpat, Khandadhar, Duduma and Bagra. There are three hot springs gushing out of mineral waters with a high percentage of sulphur. The foremost among them is the sulphur spring ‘Atri’ with a constant temperature of 55degree celsius situated at a distance of 42 km from Bhubaneswar near Khurda.

Scattered widely, six types of soils are in Orissa. They are saline soil composed of sand, clay and salts found along some coastal strips; alluvial soil in the coastal belt of Balasore, Cuttack, Puri and Ganjam districts as well as in the river valleys and flooded plains; laterite soil in the slopes of the hilly regions of Mayurbhanj down south to Koraput; red soil in the north west of Cuttack district and Dhenkanal, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Bolangir districts; brown forest soil in the districts of undivided Koraput and Kalahandi and black cotton soil in Angul, Athmalik, Aska, Bolangir and Boudh.

The minerals of Orissa can be grouped as (i) Archaean sedimentary - iron, manganese ore, quartzite, slate and ochre; (ii) Granite gnesses - china clay, building stone and road metal; (iii) Pegmatite - mica, felspar, beryal and rose quartz; (iv) the veins in Archaeans - graphite and lead quartz; (v) Cuddapah system- limestone, shale and sandstone; (vi) Gondwana system - coal, fire clay, china clay, sandstone, ochre; (vii) laterites - building stone, bauxite, lithomarge, iron ore, manganese ore, ochre; (viii) Alluvium - Kankar, brick and potter’s clay, silicon, iron ore, manganese ore and gold. Forming part of the peninsular India, Orissa is richly endowed with a variety of minerals. Bauxite deposits are extensively found in the hills of Korapul, Kalahandi and Bolangir districts which are now considered to be one of the richest deposits in Asia.

The total forest area in the state in 1981 was 59,963 sq km constituting about 38 per cent of the total geographical area. In 1989, it stood at about 30 per cent; but according to 1991 census, the coverage has come down sharply to only 17 per cent of the total land area. Based on the rainfall and vegetation types, the forests of Orissa are divided into four types viz. northern tropical semi-evergreen forests, tropical moist deciduous forests, tropical dry deciduous forests and tidal mangrove forests. Forests are a major constituent of the state’s natural resources in the form of timber, firewood and a large number of profitable products like sabai grass, lack, resin, catechu, tassar silk, honey, natural dyes etc.

In 1967 a wild tigress named "kanan" managed to creep into the zoo at Nandan Kanan, climb up a concrete wall and leapt into its tiger enclosure as if to opt for a membership by way of choosing a mate. In the seventies another female tiger named Khairi, made history by leading a domestic life as a tiger-daughter in the home of a forest official in Similipal. Such romantic instances are galore. In fact, the forests of Orissa are vibrant with animals, the beauty and variety of which are amazing. Historically, the pride of place among the wild animals of Orissa goes to the elephant. In the past, Orissa used to have an elephant wing in its Army and the historic royal dynasties took pride in calling themselves ‘Gajapati’. Other animals found widely in forest areas include the wild bear (barha), spotted deer (chital), sambar, barking deer (kutra), black faced languor or Hanuman monkey, pink-faced bandar (pati mankada), several species of bats, tailed hare and pangoline (bajra kapta), porcupine (jhinka), giant squirrel and palm squirrel. Found in the restricted areas are the wild buffaloes (arana mahinsi) traceable in Balimela and Sunabeda areas; four horned antelope charising in the isolated corners of Cuttack, Puri Dhenkanal, Sambalpur and Mayurbhanj districts and the black buck (krushnasara or baliharina) in Bhetanai near Aska in Ganjam district. The Irrawadi dolphin (Bhuasuni machha) and gangetic dolphin (sisumara) are found in Chilika and other rivers. The bird kingdom of Orissa vast,varied and colourful, offers a most attractive sight. The prominent wild life sanctuaries are Similipal National Park with Project Tiger, Kuldiha, Bhitar Kanika, Nandan Kanan Biological Park, Chandka, Chilika Bird Sanctuary, Balukhand, Mahanadi Baisipali, Kapilas, Satpasajya, Satokosia George and Tikarpara Crocodile Sanctuary, Ushakothi, Khalasuni, Debrigarh, Lakharu Valley, Sunabeda, Karlapad, Kondakamberu, Kothagarh.

As a coastal state, Orissa enjoys a tropical climate. The entire coastal belt is comparatively equable, neither very hot in summer nor very cold in winter. In the western districts of Bolongir, Sambalpur and Sundargharh, summer is hotter and winter cold. Koraput and Phulbani districts enjoy the climate of the Himalayan region, being very cold in winter, but not very hot in summer.

Agriculture is the dominant sector in the state’s economy. Sixtyfour per cent of the working population is engaged either directly or indirectly in this sector. Rice is the main crop and its production during the year 1999-2000 was 51.87 lakh metric tonnes. Sugarcane is the main cash crop. Irrigation potential has been created through major, medium and minor irrigation, lift irrigation and water harvesting projects up to 24.85 lakh hectares by 1999-2000. The total installed capacity of power in state sector during 1999-2000 was 3935.75 MW. The power available from all sources was 1,206.62 MW. Out of 47,989 villages in the state, 36,625 villages have been electrified by 1999-2000. By the end of 1999-2000, Orissa had 339 large and medium industries. The state is providing institutional and financial support with various incentives and concessions for promotion of small scale, village and cottage industries. There were 62,552 small scale industries in the state by the end of 1999-2000.

Endowed with nature’s bounty, a 482 km stretch of coastline with virgin beaches, serpentine rivers, mighty waterfalls, forest-clad blue hills of Eastern Ghats with rich wild life, Orissa is dotted with exquisite temples, historic monuments as well as pieces of modern engineering feat. This wonderful land of fascinating beauty boasts of colourful festivals round the year. Orissa is also a land of unique handicrafts and other excellent artefacts and all this goes to make the state a tourist attraction.