Odisha government has proposed a second biosphere reserve in the southern part of that state at Mahendragiri.
Similipal Biosphere Reserve is Odisha’s first such reserve.
That was notified in 1996.
The area of the proposed Mahendragiri Biosphere Reserve is spread over Gajapati and Ganjam districts in the Eastern Ghats.
Mahendragiri hill ecosystem acts as a transitional zone between the flora and fauna of southern India and the Himalayas.
Mahendragiri is inhabited by the Soura people, a particularly vulnerable tribal group as well as the Kandha tribe.
According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Twenty-nine of the 41 species of threatened medicinal plants found in Odisha are found in the biosphere reserve area.