The Kandhamal district in Odisha has a fifty-five per cent Khond population, and is named after the tribe they revolted against the Britishers in 1846 due to the fear of being annexed.

In addition to these scheduled states, they are also found in northeastern India, particularly in Assam, where their population was estimated at 9,936 in the 1951 census, primarily working as tea garden workers.

Their traditional lifestyle, language, food habits, customary traits of economy, political organisation, norms, values, and world view have been drastically changed in recent times.

The traditional Khond society is based on geographically demarcated clans, each consisting of a large group of related families identified by a Totem, usually of a male wild animal.

A large number of Khonds were recruited by the British during the First and Second World Wars and were prized as natural jungle warfare experts and fierce warriors.

Even today a large proportion of the Khond men join the State police or Armed Forces of India to seek an opportunity to prove their bravery.

They also practice the podu system of shifting cultivation on the hill slopes where they grow different varieties of rice, lentils and vegetables.

Among them, 90.19% are Hindu, 9.28% are Christian, while 2,578 are Muslim, 437 are Buddhist, 181 are Sikh, 89 are Jain, 3,151 follow other religions (primarily Nature worship), and 2,578 did not state any religious affiliation.

Pitabali Puja was performed by offering flowers, fruits, sandal paste, incense, ghee-lamps, ghee, sundried rice, turmeric, buffalo or a he-goat and fowl.

[9] The Traditional Khond religion gave highest importance to the Earth goddess, who is held to be the creator and sustainer of the world.

In Traditional Khond religion, a breach of accepted religious conduct by any member of their society invited the wrath of spirits in the form of lack of rain fall, soaking of streams, destruction of forest produce, and other natural calamities.

Hence, the customary laws, norms, taboos, and values were greatly adhered to and enforced with high to heavy punishments, depending upon the seriousness of the crimes committed.

Extended contact with the Oriya speaking Hindus made Khonds to adopt many aspects of Hinduism and Hindu culture.

[10] Many Khonds converted to Protestant Christianity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century due to the efforts of the missionaries of the Serampore Mission.

However, the Khond tribal identity and affiliation predominates the social and ethical culture far more than individual religious faith.

Significantly, as with many indigenous peoples, the conceptual worldview of the natural environment and its sacredness subscribed to by the Khond reinforce the social and cultural practices that define the tribe.

The most striking feature of the Khonds is that they have adapted to horticulture and grow pineapple, oranges, turmeric, ginger and papaya in plenty.

Forest fruit trees like mango and jackfruit, Mahua, Guava, Tendu and Custard apples are collected, which fulfill the major dietary chunk of the Khonds.

From 1753 to 1856 in the century long Ghumsar uprising the Khonds rebelled against the rule of the East India Company and carried out sustained guerrilla warfare as well as pitched combat against the British.

[13][14] The Dongria clan of Khonds inhabit the steep slopes of the Niyamgiri Range of Koraput district and over the border into Kalahandi.

Vedanta Resources, a UK-based mining company, threatened the future of homeland of the Dongria Khonds clan of this tribe who reside in the Niyamgiri Hills which has rich deposits of bauxite.

[16] In 2010 India's environment ministry ordered Vedanta Resources to halt a sixfold expansion of an aluminium refinery in Odisha.

[19][20] Celebrities backing the campaign included Arundhati Roy (the Booker prize-winning author), as well as the British actors Joanna Lumley and Michael Palin.

[21] The Niyamgiri movement and the resultant decision of the Supreme Court is considered a major milestone in indigenous rights jurisprudence in India.