Nuapada Malkangiri Forest Tribal NTFP Livelihoods Odisha

Nuapada and Malkangiri districts in western and southern Odisha are among the state's most tribal and forest-dependent districts, where Kondh, Bonda, Koya, and Gadaba communities collect kendu leaf, char (mahua), sal seed, and lac from the mixed deciduous forests that cover over 70 percent of district area. Malkangiri district on the Andhra-Chhattisgarh-Odisha tri-junction borders the Sabari river (tributary of Godavari) and has historically been affected by the Maoist insurgency that exploits the district's extreme isolation and development deficit. Odisha's OMFED (Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation) and forest cooperative programmes in these districts aim to provide tribal communities with fair-price procurement and organisation for their NTFP and dairy produce.