Is there any relationship between resettlement of refugees and rangelands? Perhaps yes, because it is often the rangelands (village pastures, grazing lands, and commons) which bear the brunt of hastily done refugee resettlement camps/colonies. A similar case was found in Malkangiri district of Odisha. Preliminary observations suggest that resettlement of refugees from different parts of the country in the district has not only negatively affected the rangelands/pasture lands and health/fodder security of the Indigenous Motu Cattle breed population, but also completely altered the local traditional milk cultures of the ethnic Koya tribal communities of the district. Traditionally the local ethnic Koya community and other co-habiting communities including the Scheduled Castes of Malkangiri district consumed milk, until a few decades ago. There was a culture of milking and making curd from Motu cattle milk, which was a common practice until a generation ago. However, this tradition has been lost due to multiple reasons. One of the main reasons cited by the local communities is the change in the local food cultures. Traditionally local communities consumed gruel made of millets (sorghum) as a staple diet. Curd prepared from Motu cattle milk was a key ingredient of this traditional food. Curd was added to the sorghum gruel and consumed until a few decades ago. The supply of paddy rice replaced millets and consequently altered the local traditional food cultures, in turn eliminating the local traditional milk culture of the study area. The other major reason cited by the local communities is more on the ethical and moral side. Locals say that local fodder availability of cattle has decreased drastically and cattle became emaciated from lack of enough fodder. Locals believe that poorly nourished cattle do not produce enough milk and milking such emaciated animals would leave the calves hungry and result in their death. Although, it was difficult to establish the drivers behind this situation, existing literature has already suggested that majority of the traditional grazing pastures of Motu cattle have been diverted for the settlement of over 2.5 lakh refugee families of Bangladesh, along with Odiya refugees from Burma and Tamil refugees from Srilanka have been rehabilitated in the native habitat of Koya tribes during the 1990s. A report published by the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute, Bhubaneswar, on Koya tribes suggests that “The Government converted their traditional pastures for their cattle to agricultural lands for the resettlers. The Koya pastoral economy suffered a major setback for lack of adequate pasture. Thus, the Koyas are hard pressed economically in their own habitat.”  In addition, the status of access to forest resources and recognition of customary grazing rights bestowed under the Forest Rights Act 2006, is yet unknown.