| Orissa The word Oriya is an anglicised version of Odia which itself is a modern name for the Odra or Udra tribes that inhabited the central belt of modern Orissa. Wedged between West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, Orissa lies on the eastern coast of India with the waters of the Bay of Bengal swirling along its eastern and southeastern boundaries. It is bounded by West Bengal in north-east, Bihar in the north, Madhya Pradesh in the west, Andhra Pradesh in the south and the Bay of Bengal in the east. (Interactive map of Orissa) Orissa was separated from Bihar and came into existence on 1 April 1936. The capital was established at the historic city of Cuttack, located at the apex of the Mahanadi delta. In 1956, it was shifted to Bhubaneswar, a planned modern town of the post-independence period. With an area of about 1,55,707 kmē and the population over 36,706,920, the state offers diverse habitats from lush green and hilly terrain to coastal plains and rolling river valleys, crises-crossed by the Brahmani, the Mahanadi and the Bansadhara rivers. |
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