Kuldiha Forest

Kuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary About 300 sq.km of hilly landscape in Balasore district constitutes the Kuldiha forest. It is close to Nilgiri forest towards north and Mayurbhanj forest in northwest. Sukhuapata and Gagua hills separate Kuldiha from Similipal. Through Gadasahi forests on the south west, Kuldiha have a disjointed link with Baula RF of Hadgarh reservoir. Rising from 169m above sea level, some prominent hills that form the landscape include Asta Pahar (423m) occupying a Central position; Devgiri Pahar (682m) in south; Ranga matia (629m) in north; Kolia Parbat (495m) in east. Kuldiha fits into a tourism circuit encompassing Chandipur, Remuna, Nilagiri and Panchalingeswar. Kuldiha presents typical mixture of Peninsular (coastal) Sal forests and moist mixed deciduous forests of deccan peninsula. Small rivers emerging from the Kuldiha landscape are Tangana, Kamala, Basudhar, Uastal Nala. The forested areas of the region feed to Budhabalanga through tributaries Sono in North and Gangahar in south. There are two reservoirs in Kuldiha. The Rissia reservoir in northwest is over river Tangana and Sindhua reservoir in southeast is over Uastal nala. These to reservoirs have helped the crop and climate regime of the region.