| · The Post Graduate Department of Anthropology was established in 1958 is one of the oldest Department in the country as well as first Department in the State of Odisha. |
| · The Department took some trend setting and unique steps in developing anthropology in the country. It initiated interdisciplinary teaching in South-East Asian Studies as part of M.A./M.Sc. |
| · Also, for the first time, in the country, teaching of two specialization courses on Development Anthropology and Population Anthropology at the University level. |
| · In 1978, the Department was selected for Faculty Improvement Programme by the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi, as one of the three University Departments in the whole country. |
| · Six Professors of this Department served as Sectional President of the Anthropological and Behavioural Sciences section of the Indian Science Congress in various years. Very few Departments in India have this distinction. |
| · (CAS-I Review Meeting by UGC expert, Prof. Satawanti Kapoor, University of Delhi and University authorities along with Faculty) |
| · The Department had organized the Centenary Celebration of the First Odia Archaeologist Padmasri Paramananda Acharya in 1993. |
| · This Department has the distinction of being one of the two Departments in the country to have been accorded the Centre of Advanced Study status by the University Grants Commission. At this moment, second phase of CAS (UGC-CAS-II) has been accorded to the Department. |
| · It has the distinction of being the first Anthropology Department in the country to have been awarded the ASHISS grant by the UGC. The Department was accorded Department of Special Assistance status (DSA Programme) by UGC for three successive phases from 1988 to 2007. |
| · Golden Jubilee Celebrations by organizing International Conference on “Anthropology in India Today: Postmodernism and Globalism in Perspective”, 16-19 December 2007. |
| · In 2015, under the auspices of Indian National Confederation of Academy of Anthropologists (INCAA), the Department had organized the Indian Anthropology Congress 2015 (12th INCAA Congress). |
| · In 2015, the Department co-organized an International Seminar on ‘Reviving Old Linkages and Exploring New Opportunities’ under the auspices of Kalinga-Lanka Foundation. |
| · Department faculty members were involved in organization of an International Conference on ‘India & the Indian Ocean: Renewing the Maritime Trade & Civilisational Linkages’. |
| · The Department has initiated the Japanese Language Pilot Project w.e.f. academic session 2015-16 . |
| · The Department has made important contribution in understanding the early human settlement and origin of agriculture in Odisha by excavation three human skeleton from the Bang, Harirajpur, Odisha. |
