New Delhi: Deployment of elder personnel in remote areas, not enough time to rest and perpetual stress. Sources in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) say these factors are responsible for the deaths of more than 500 personnel due to various illnesses and heart attacks in areas affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) between 2019 and 2023.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Tuesday informed Lok Sabha that as many as 577 CAPF personnel died “due to heart attack and illness in Naxal affected area(s)” in the four-year period.
In his reply MoS (Home) Nityanand Rai said the MHA was unaware of any “specific unusual causes” of illnesses or heart attacks in LWE-affected areas. But important to note is that the number of deaths caused by illnesses and heart attacks is double that of casualties suffered (207) in counter-LWE operations between 1 January 2019 and 15 July 2024.
The CAPF comprise the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
Lack of emphasis on medical and physical fitness of personnel before their deployment to LWE hotbeds where they have to operate in harsh terrain and forests, along with the inability of the forces to relieve them of their perpetual stress also add to their woes, several CAPF officials conceded to ThePrint.
They added that the top brass has issued dietary directives, primarily asking forces to minimise usage of oil and increase the proportion of millets in food, besides procuring fruits and milk from local markets for troops deployed in remote areas to counter this challenge.
As ThePrint reported earlier, the CAPF also grapples with two other serious challenges: deaths by suicide and rising attrition.
As many as 654 CAPF personnel died by suicide between 2018 and 2022 — which means, on average, one member of the CAPF died by suicide every three days during this period.
In the same five-year period, as many as 50,155 CAPF personnel resigned. This means, on average, 27 personnel opted for voluntary retirement each day over the past five years.
Highest deaths among CRPF personnel
The CRPF, which is the primary counter-LWE force among the paramilitary forces, suffered the highest loss to illnesses and heart attacks in LWE-affected areas, with 297 deaths between 2019 and 2023. The number of deaths witnessed a surge in the post-pandemic period before plateauing: 45 in 2019, 63 in 2020, 73 in 2021, 62 in 2022, and 54 in 2023.
A CRPF official said on condition of anonymity that nearly 90 of the force’s total 245 battalions are deployed in LWE-affected areas, including 45 in Chhattisgarh alone. ThePrint earlier reported a significant increase in the number of counter-LWE operations and secular decline in the number of police stations affected by Left-wing extremism.
CRPF is followed by BSF, which also carries out counter-LWE operations, besides its primary mandate of guarding the international border with Pakistan and Bangladesh. It suffered the loss of 108 personnel due to illnesses or heart attacks between 2019 and 2023.
The CISF, deployed in LWE-affected areas to secure important government buildings or Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), suffered 76 deaths due to illnesses or heart attacks during this period. And the ITBP, which primarily guards the international border with China, lost 74 personnel to illnesses or heart attacks between 2019 and 2023.
‘Helplessness & perpetual stress’
A senior CAPF official said the “perpetual stress” troops deal with during their deployment in LWE-affected areas is a major cause of deaths due to illnesses and heart attacks. The official, at the same time, lamented a state of “helplessness”. There is no solution because many factors that contribute to stress levels are beyond the control of the force, he said.
“The personnel are generally deployed at the sector headquarters but they never know the time when they could be dispatched based on immediate intelligence. The nature of duty is such that there is a sense of anxiety among the troops all the time leading to deterioration of their overall health,” a second senior CAPF official said.
A BSF official flagged deployment of elder personnel in LWE-affected areas, which primarily demand younger troops owing to the harsh terrain and various other constraints.
When the BSF was first tasked with counter-LWE operations sometime in 2009-10, there was an “unwritten rule” that the fittest and the youngest will be deployed for this purpose, said the official. But the unwritten rule faded over time, he said, adding that some BSF personnel are “retiring from service with LWE theatres as their last posting”.
One CAPF official also highlighted malaria as a significant cause of illness among troops, especially those deployed in the deep jungles of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. The official, however, was quick to add that vector-borne diseases were not a major cause of deaths.
Less oil, more millets
Several CAPF officials ThePrint spoke to conceded that deaths due to heart attacks were a “cause of concern,” more so given that the forces lost some younger personnel to instances of heart attacks.
Emphasising that the top brass has taken cognizance of the issue, officials said directions have been issued to platoons and companies to reduce usage of oil in preparation of food for troops.
“We have been given a directive to cut down on oil in cooked food till the lowest level of assembly. We have been asked to increase use of millets. There has been negligible use of refined oil in food cooked in our langars and makeshift kitchens,” a CAPF official said.
“We have been asked to mix 30-35 percent of millets in grains to avoid an abundance of gluetins in the bodies of personnel, thereby improving their digestive system and curbing cholesterol (levels),” said another official aware of the dietary directive.
Additionally, the forces have been asked to increase their expenditure on procuring fruits and milk from local markets to ensure proper availability of macronutrients for personnel deployed in remote areas.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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