Bastar: Scrawled on an old, dilapidated wall of the panchayat bhavan in the Kachchapal village in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district is the message: “Jhuthe Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha chunaav ka bahiskar karo; janatana sarkar ko bachao aur majbut karo (boycott the fake Chhattisgarh assembly elections; protect and strengthen the people’s government).”
The appeal seems to be fading from the wall and in the public imagination, given the row of local villagers queuing in front of the wall to inquire about the status of their Aadhaar applications. Just over a year ago, Kachchapal was considered inaccessible owing to its location deep inside Abujmarh, a Maoist stronghold often called the “unknown hills”.
Nearly 300 km away in Bijapur district, an ambulance under the central flagship scheme National Health Mission wades through the lanes of Kondapalli village, where Maoists used to call the shots, for the first time. In neighbouring Sukma district, Bhandipara—birthplace of Maoist commander Madvi Hidma—now has solar lights and electrical appliances.
Many villages in the Maoist strongholds across these three districts of Chhattisgarh are now accessible thanks to newly constructed approach roads, allowing the administration to provide residents with drinking water, electricity and other basic facilities. Verification norms have also been relaxed to ensure local residents have documentation to avail of government welfare schemes, which were, till recently, beyond their grasp.
The outreach with government schemes, combined with an increased security presence, is part of a two-pronged strategy devised by the state and central governments to end the Maoist threat in Chhattisgarh.
Security forces established a camp at Narayanpur’s Kachchapal in the last few months. In the three districts most affected by Maoist insurgency, Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur, security forces have built and opened nine, 11 and seven security camps, respectively, over the past year.
Forces have opened two such camps in Bijapur and one in Narayanpur so far in 2025.
“There was a security vacuum in these deep areas of Bastar … Lately, we have been opening camps, one after another, to open up areas to allow the forces to secure the area before administrative officials can reach and take government schemes to remote villages,” Bastar Range Inspector General of Police Sundarraj Pattilingam tells ThePrint.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the country has been on a downward trajectory, with 126 districts across nine states reporting incidents in 2010, when LWE was at its peak, and just 38 districts reporting incidents in April 2024.
In the past year alone, security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar killed 217 suspected Maoists in as many as 123 encounters while arresting 929 others and registering 419 cases. This year, 81 suspected Maoists have been killed so far.
Chhattisgarh DGP Arun Dev Gautam says the MHA and Chhattisgarh government have taken a call for “complete eradication of the armed form of Naxalism, and these encounters are steps in the right direction”. “We are working on the mission to eradicate violent Naxalism from the state and country by March 2026,” Gautam tells ThePrint.
Veteran police officer and former Chhattisgarh DGP R.K. Vij, however, said that to eradicate Maoism, there has to be the political will to fill the vacuum of representation, and only then can villagers trust the democratically elected government instead of the ‘janatana sarkar’. Taking developmental schemes to tribal villages bereft of basic amenities until recently is just the state and administration fulfilling their basic duties, he added.
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Security & development go hand in hand
Near a camp opened by forces in Koragutta village of Bijapur and manned by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the gram pradhan makes a stop, with a bunch of Aadhaar cards for residents. “Aadhaar cards are essential, allowing residents to get the services and facilities the government provides. The camps increased our accessibility to the cards,” says village head Bhimaram Markam (37).
The Maoists earlier used the location as a launching pad, recruitment zone, and base for its armed wing, the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA), according to security personnel who now have the area under their control.
Reaching villages like Koragutta is now possible because of approach roads built under Chhattisgarh government flagship scheme ‘Niyad Nellanar’ (your good village). Since the launch of the scheme on 15 February last year, governance has reached 118 villages in the five-km range of 37 security camps in the five Maoist-affected districts of Bijapur, Sukma, Narayanpur, Dantewada and Kanker, district officials told ThePrint.
According to sources in the security establishment, Koragutta is key in the fight against Maoists, and security camps are up and running every five to six km from here, extending into the forests between Tarrem and Pamed on the Chhattisgarh-Telangana boundary.
Forces opened 30 camps across the five Maoist-affected districts last year. “Since security camps went deeper inside the forest, there was an opportunity to roll out development projects on mission mode to extend outreach to the tribal people,” a police officer said.
Adding, “Naxalism grew to such an extent that it surmounted every other government work in Chhattisgarh. Now is the most opportune time for course correction. The Maoists are on the retreat, and security forces have opened new opportunities for officials in the villages.”
In Bhandipara under Sukma’s Puvarti gram panchayat, where topmost Maoist commander Madvi Hidma was born, Kawasi Ayatu (50) says he has, of late, been getting ration through his Aadhaar card. Just adjacent to his hut is another hut with a free-to-dish antenna, solar panels on the roof and a new LED TV inside. “This is the first TV in this village … villagers gather here to watch action movies,” says villager Madke Wanjam.
The village also has a mounted solar street light, plus individual piped water connections and water tanks, while the borewell work remains pending. The presence of security camps in the area has allowed developmental works to continue.
On the other hand, security forces are also better placed now to mount surprise attacks since the camps are deeper inside the forest and the Maoists are closer, a Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) officer told ThePrint.
For instance, security forces are only 10 km away from Maoists in the border region between Bijapur and Sukma—an area once dominated by Maoist commander Hidma.
‘A chicken and egg situation’
In December 2024, when Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Bijapur’s Gundam village, where forces had opened a new camp, residents complained they did not have ration cards.
The process has challenges, but officials have been going the extra mile to ensure that procedural hindrances do not lead to delays. “It is a chicken and egg situation. To make Aadhaar, one needs to have some documents verifying their identity and residence—which they never had,” a senior official in the Chhattisgarh government told ThePrint.
Another problem in disbursing funds under central schemes in the villages is the absence of bank branches, making Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana or Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) impossible.
To solve these problems, the Chhattisgarh government reached out to relevant central ministries and departments to seek exemptions for people in Bastar—which were granted.
Niharika Barik, principal secretary at the state panchayat and rural development department, says: “We sought relaxations, such as villagers can take identification documents from officials of the district revenue department to make Aadhaar, and that yielded results.” The Centre also provided exemption from the DBT in case of MGNREGS beneficiaries, for instance, to facilitate faster rollout, senior officials add.
Barik says the state also contacted the Department of Financial Services in New Delhi, urging it to relax norms on opening bank branches within a five-km radius, even when fewer than 5,000 people live within that area. “These are tribal hamlets … we shall never have that population to fulfil the criteria … hence, we reached out for some relaxation.”
The state government, jointly with the Department of Posts, is now surveying villages to find suitable places to open branches of India Post Payments Bank. “We are planning to open 294 branches of IPPB in the Bastar districts by the end of this year,” says Barik.
Barik also points out that the state panchayat and rural development department has created a dashboard to track implementation status of developmental schemes and projects launched by the government.
Vij feels these new schemes are “enough to bridge only the gap between the security and the administration at best”. He adds that top Maoist leaders are still alive and active.
‘Instrument of the State’
On a sunny afternoon, roughly 35 kids are playing outside a security camp in Puvarti village in Sukma district. Known as the birthplace of Hidma, Puvarti now has a playfield and a makeshift school. Among the students at CRPF Gurukul is Podiam Laxmi (13), who is learning the Hindi alphabet. For Laxmi, the CRPF Gurukul is where she saw a blackboard for the first time. Another student, Marrakam Lakma (8), can count to 100—which, he says, he learnt in the two weeks since he started attending school.
Security forces opened a camp in Puvarti last February. Then, in December, CRPF officers at the camp roped in Nippu Baggu (18), who had studied till Class 12, to teach the children of Puvarti and nearby villages. “I teach them basic alphabets in Hindi and English and train them to speak Hindi. I have been teaching for the last two weeks at a promised salary of Rs 12,500 per month,” says Baggu.
Classes run from 8am to noon each day. The last two hours after noon are for sports activities, such as volleyball and cricket, followed by a quick lunch, also provided by the CRPF. Security forces call the CRPF Gurukul a “temporary outreach measure”.
In neighbouring Koragutta camp in Bijapur, gram pradhan Markam says access to public facilities has improved considerably since the opening of the security camp. “The camp provided internet services, medicines and other facilities, too.”
At the entry gate of the camp, panchayat secretary Laxmi Alam identifies herself to a sentry, who also takes down her request for medicines for her headache.
There are also those who see this differently.
“The purpose of security forces in forests and camps is not lost on tribals or any well-meaning citizen of the country. The State does not have to provide facilities to the people—which they have the right to—through forces the people identify as an instrument of the State’s might and firepower,” says Dantewada-based tribal activist and lawyer Bela Bhatia.
Last-mile connectivity
Other developmental work is also ongoing. Bus services are operational from the Maoist-affected villages to Bijapur town on six routes to improve last-mile connectivity.
In neighbouring Sukma, the administration spent roughly Rs 11 crore between February 2024 and January 2025 on the construction of roads and bridges to villages tucked away in the forests. This figure was Rs 33.77 crore for Bijapur and Rs 8.36 crore for Narayanpur.
To improve last-mile connectivity through Abujmarh, 18 approach roads are under construction in Narayanpur, Superintendent of Police Prabhat Kumar tells ThePrint.
“In January last year, the Maharashtra border was 45 km from the last area secured by the forces. The distance has dropped to a mere 15 km. By June, we will reach the Maharashtra border walking through the villages in Abujmarh,” he adds.
All hands on deck
Besides central forces and state departments, local forces, such as the District Reserve Guard (DRG) in Bastar too have played a huge role in implementing plans on the ground.
The DRG was established in 2008 as a guerilla force of Maoist cadres who had surrendered.
“DRGs can on their own carry out anti-Naxal operations, but no operations can take place without their physical presence or intelligence assessment,” reveals one police officer.
With the administration reaching villages and persuading Maoist cadres and sympathisers to surrender, security forces have been able to limit the loss of life suffered in operations. “Earlier, the State lost 1.5 jawans to eliminate one Maoist. Now, 15 Maoists are eliminated for the unfortunate loss of one jawan,” says an officer who did not wish to be named.
Tactics such as circular cut-off, where security personnel outnumber and encircle the Maoists, have yielded results. “These need a lot of boots on the ground,” the officer adds.
All eyes on Bijapur, Sukma & Narayanpur
On 6 January, after a counter-insurgency operation in the Abujmarh forest, troops from the state’s DRG were crossing Bijapur’s Kutru forest area with the body of one of their own when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded, killing nine DRGs.
Though it was one of the deadliest IED blasts in the region in recent years, security forces have got better at recovering IEDS, with 15 defused in Bijapur so far this year.
Last year, Bijapur saw 24 of the 52 IED blasts in Bastar, whereas Narayanpur and Sukma saw 10 and six IED blasts, respectively. Police data accessed by ThePrint showed security forces recovered 308 IEDs last year, with 247 seized from the three districts.
The recovery of 308 IEDs has been the highest in five years since 2019.
“Overwhelming support to Maoists by villagers plays a part in use of IEDs against security forces,” says a security officer. “The decisive battle against Maoists will be in Bijapur.”
Adding, “The blast site was just 3-4 km from Kutru police station, but there was no information about possible IEDs on the road used by troops. The IED had a 60-kg explosive attached to a 250-m wire going into the paddy field nearby, but there was no information.”
Security forces have marked the IEDs as the single major factor detrimental to their lives and safety. As one police officer put it: “When we lose our personnel in exchange of fire, troops accept it as an occupational hazard. Losing men to IEDs that cause death and dismemberment has a serious demoralising impact.”
For operational success, there is also a need to build trust with village residents caught between security forces and Maoists.
“Maoists won over the trust of these poor villagers because there was no State for them. They [Maoists] learnt their language, loved them, and spent money on them to win over their trust over long periods. Have we sincerely tried to outdo them in terms of goodwill and outreach to the poor villagers? Have we learnt their [villagers’] language to make them feel at home so they can open up to us? The answer is no,” Vij tells ThePrint.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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