New Delhi - Communal tensions are on the rise in eastern India as radical Hindus in the state of Orissa have torched hundreds of churches and Christian homes since late August.

As in past confrontations in recent years, the violence between Hindus and Christians has centred in Orissa's Kandhamal district.

Kandhamal lies in a remote mountainous region in the heart of Orissa, some 200 kilometres west of the state capital Bhubaneshwar.

The district, home to some 600,000 people, is among India's poorest.

The majority of the population belongs to India's indigenous people that calls itself "Adivasi," which translates as "first inhabitants."

The Adivasi maintain their own cultural identity and traditionally are animists, believing in nature spirits.

But over the past few decades, tens of thousands of Adivasi converted to Christianity, mainly because many Christian aid organizations operating in the region were not only building schools and hospitals for the impoverished tribes people, but also brought their religion.

Today, almost a quarter of Kandhamal's population is Christian. The national proportion of Christians is only slightly over 2 per cent.

Fundamentalist organizations like the Hindu World Council, or Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), have accused Christian aid workers of engaging in missionary work in the tribal areas.

The VHP claim the aid workers routinely demand conversion to Christianity from the people in exchange for material assistance.

Although Christian authorities in India have vehemently rejected these accusations, the claims have been used by radical Hindu groups to justify their aggressive campaign against Christians.

The situation came to the attention of the international community for the first time almost 10 years ago when Australian priest Graham Staines and his two underage sons were murdered.

Hindu fanatics firebombed the Staines' family car in Orissa and the father and his 2 children were burnt alive.

Staines had spent 34 years caring for lepers in Orissa's tribal areas.

Triggering the latest wave of violence was the murder in late August of a VHP cadre who had led the campaign against allegedly forced religious conversions in Kandhamal district.

At the time Maoist rebels, who are also active in the region, claimed responsibility for the killing.

But the radical Hindu groups accused the Christians of the murder and launched a series of bloody revenge actions.

Since then hundreds of homes and many Christian institutions and churches have been put to the torch and at least 34 people were killed during the brutal assaults.

A local nun was raped by the Hindu mob, while an estimated 20,000 Christian Adivasi fled their villages.

Pope Benedict XVI and numerous Western politicians have sharply denounced the violence and called upon India's central government to prevent further attacks.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh responded by insisting that religious freedom was guaranteed in the country's constitution and would be defended by his government.

But he also said that it was the responsibility of Orissa's state government to ensure the security of its people and to protect their property.

But in a signal that he understands the severity of the current volatile situation, Singh has ordered India's interior minister to dispatch an additional 5,000 security personnel to Kandhamal since the violence intensified in late August.