Local legend claims Valmiki wrote the Ramayana on the banks of the Tamasa river.

Local legend claims the Pandavas spent a year in exile in the dense forests of Malkangiri.

In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Malkangiri one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640).

[3] According to the 2011 census Malkangiri district has a population of 613,192,[6] roughly equal to the nation of Solomon Islands[7] or the US state of Vermont.

The Bengali language is mostly spoken by descendants of refugees from Bangladesh erst while East Pakistan.

Malkangiri has 2 Vidhan Sabha constituencies, electing members to the Odisha Legislative Assembly:[10][11][12][13]