Phulbani

Phulbani belongs to the upland interior of Odisha, where wooded hills and valleys separate the coastal plains from the deeper country of the Eastern Ghats. In this regional setting, Kondh and other Indigenous communities developed livelihoods combining cultivation, forest resources and exchange. Different elevations and soils encouraged different uses of land, while seasonal rain governed the agricultural calendar. Villages relied on local knowledge of paths, streams and useful plants, maintaining connections across terrain that could be difficult for outsiders to cross.

The wider Garjat country contained numerous chiefly and princely authorities whose relationships with surrounding rulers varied over time. Its wooded hills kept the upland communities largely apart from the coastal plain.