Gandhamardan hill range is one of the biodiversity-rich geographical pockets in Odisha. The present work enlightens on fundamentals correlating drainage basin morphometry with soil substrate material, infiltration, permeability, erodibility potential, basin water storage, perennial stream development and vegetation. The studied terrain of the Gandhamardan has maximum elevation of 1002 m and minimum elevation of 219 m. Sixty-seven drainage basins have 1477 drainage channels which include first order (1098), second order (274), third order (81), fourth order (22) and fifth order (2). All channels sum up to a total of 1027.93 km. The hill can generate high runoff due to an average drainage density of 3.42 km/km2. Coarse drainage texture is observed inferring widely spaced channels, presence of massive, resistive rocks and well-protected basins by vegetation. Infiltration number, length of overland flow, constant channel maintenance, elongation ratio, circularity ratio and form factor indicate most of the basins to be with good infiltration capacity and permeable substrate material favoring blanketed vegetation on the hill. Relief ratio and Ruggedness number show a gentle slope and mild erosion process operating on the hill. This helps slow runoff and more ground percolation. Mild roughness of basins is reflected from ruggedness index. 48.24% geographical area of all basins is found to be less dissected from dissection index. Average slope of the watershed shows that 90.90% geographical area is under least erodibility class indicating intact substrate material supporting vegetation growth during adverse water-limited seasons. The time of concentration validates the presence of perennial streams like Nrusinghanath and Harishankar on the hills. Therefore, drainage morphometry is a helpful tool to assess landscape dynamics. This in turn will help biodiversity characterization satisfying UN SDGs 13 (Climate Action) and 15 (Life on Land) respectively.