India: Maoists Outgunned In Chhattisgarh – Analysis

On February 9, 2025, inflicting significant losses on the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), a joint team of Security Forces (SFs) comprising District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Special Task Force (STF) personnel, shot dead at least 31 Maoists in an encounter in a forest area between the Maddeda-Farsegarh border in the Indravati National Park area in the Bijapur District of Chhattisgarh. Two security personnel, one belonging to the state police’s DRG and the other from the STF, were killed in the gunfight, and another two suffered injuries.

Acting on specific information about the presence of armed Maoists in the National Park area of the district, the SFs initiated an anti-Maoist operation. The recovered bodies of the cadres of Left-Wing Extremists (LWEs) are yet to be identified. A large cache of weapons, including AK-47s, Self-Loading Rifles (SLRs), INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) assault rifles, .303 rifles, Barrel Grenade Launchers (BGLs), and explosives were recovered from the encounter site. “Based on specific information about the presence of armed Maoists at the national park region of Bijapur district, a joint team of security forces comprising DRG and STF left on an anti-Maoist operation on Saturday [February 8],” an unnamed police officer disclosed, adding further that the casualty count of the red rebels may rise further.

The February 9, 2025, encounter is the ‘most successful’ in the state, in terms of fatalities inflicted on the Maoists, since the encounter on October 4, 2024, when 38 CPI-Maoist cadres were killed by the Chhattisgarh Police personnel belonging to the DRG and STF, in the forested terrain near Nendur-Thulthuli in the south Abujhmadh area under Orchha Police Station limits in Narayanpur.

In the interim, there have been another 10 encounters which have resulted in three or more Maoist killings in the state. These included:

February 1, 2025: eight Maoist cadres were killed by SFs in an anti-Maoist operation in the densely forested Todka area under Gangaloor Police Station limits in Bijapur District.

January 20, 2025: at least 16 Maoist cadres were killed along the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border in an anti-Maoist operation conducted in the Kularighat Reserve Forest area under Mainpur Police Station limits in the Gariabandh District.

January 16, 2025: at least 18 Maoist cadres were killed by a joint team of security personnel of the DRG from three districts (Bijapur, Dantewada, and Sukma), five battalions of CoBRA [Commando Battalion for Resolute Action, an elite jungle warfare unit of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)], and the 229th battalion of CRPF, in Bijapur District.

January 12, 2025: at least five Maoist cadres, including two women cadres, were killed in an encounter with SFs in a forest in the Indravati National Park area in Bijapur District.

January 9, 2025: SFs killed three wanted Maoists in an encounter in the hilly terrain between the Paliguda and Gundarajgudem villages in Sukma District.

January 5, 2025: five Maoist cadres in uniform and one SF trooper were killed during an encounter in the Abujhmadh area of Narayanpur District.

December 12, 2024: at least seven Maoist cadres were killed in an encounter with the SFs comprising DRG, STF and CRPF, in the Abujhmadh forests of Narayanpur District.

November 22, 2024: at least 10 Maoist cadres were killed in an encounter with SFs in the jungles of Korajuguda, Dantewada, Nagaram, and Bhandarpadar in Sukma District.

November 16, 2024: five Maoist cadres were killed during an encounter between the SFs comprising personnel of the DRG, STF, and Border Security Force (BSF), and the Maoists, in the Abujhmadh Forest area of Narayanpur District.

November 8, 2024: Three Maoist cadres were killed in an exchange of fire with the SFs near the Rekhapalli-Komathpalli hilly forested terrain in Bijapur District.

This series of encounters against the Maoists is part of the ‘renewed strategy’ to ‘end’ the Maoist threat by the target date of Marcy 31, 2026, set by Union Home Minister (UHM) Amit Shah. On February 9, 2025, after the operation in Bijapur in which 31 Maoists were killed and a large cache of weapons and explosives was seized, Shah lauded the ‘strategic approach’ adopted by the Chhattisgarh government and expressed confidence that the goal of a Naxal-free India would be realised by March 31, 2026.

Between October 4, 2024, and February 9, 2025, a total of 155 Maoists has been killed in encounters in the Chhattisgarh alone. Another 106 Maoists have been arrested and the mounting pressure has resulted in the surrender of 122 Maoists. On February 1, 2025, hailing the SFs for the growing number of Maoist surrenders taking place in the state and declaring that his government’s Naxal [Left Wing Extremism, LWE] policy was based on the principle of ‘dialogue for dialogue, bullet for bullet,’ Chief Minister (CM) Vishnu Deo Sai stated,

My government’s Naxal policy is very clear. It is ‘Boli ka jawab boli se, goli ka jawab goli se [If you (Naxals) agree to talk, we are ready for a dialogue, otherwise your bullets will be answered with our bullets]. Maoists must shun violence and embrace the democratic path. My government will ensure a good life for the Naxals by undertaking their proper rehabilitation if they surrender.

According to a December 20, 2024 report, the Chhattisgarh government launched a new policy aimed at encouraging Naxals to return to the mainstream, showcasing a more compassionate approach to ending the insurgency. Under the new policy, any surrendering Naxalite will be given a monthly allowance of INR 10,000 besides the reward amount that was announced for his/her capture. In addition to financial aid, the government plans to provide land, housing, and resources related to employment to ensure that the surrendered Naxals can lead a stable and productive life. Special training programs will be set up in designated areas to equip them with vocational skills, helping them integrate into society and find sustainable livelihoods.

The Maoists have killed 14 SF personnel in five separate attacks during this period. Eight of these fatalities took place in a single attack on January 6, 2025, on the Kutru-Bedre route in the Bastar region in Bijapur District, when Maoist cadres used an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to blow up their vehicle (Scorpio SUV) in which they were returning from an operation. One civilian driver was also killed in the attack.

The overall SF:Maoist kill ratio thus works out at 1:12.91 since October 4, 2024. Prior to that date, between March 6, 2000, and October 4, 2024, the ratio was 1:1.26. The Maoists are manifestly outgunned.

According to the Annual Report 2023-24, of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in 2023, Chhattisgarh remained the worst LWE-affected state and accounting for 63 per cent of the total LWE-related incidents of violence and 66 per cent of the resultant fatalities. Jharkhand was the second most affected state, with 27% of the LWE-related violence incidents and 23% of the resultant deaths. The remaining incidents of violence and fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Kerala.

According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), Chhattisgarh continued to hold the top spot in terms of fatalities (313 out of a total of 400 nationwide) registered in a state during 2024, with Maharashtra a distant second, with 27 fatalities, and Jharkhand at third, with 26. Chhattisgarh has been at the top spot since 2014. Jharkhand briefly surged ahead in 2013, with 130 fatalities, as compared to 125 in Chhattisgarh. Moreover, violence in the ‘Bastar Division,’ which remained the major challenge for the state, registered around 97.76 per cent of the overall fatalities in the state (306 fatalities out of a total of 313 statewide). The Bastar Division comprises seven of Chhattisgarh’s 33 districts – Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Kanker, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, and Sukma – in the southernmost region of the state.

Chhattisgarh has long been the epicentre of Maoist violence in the country and, at peak in 2007, had recorded at least 368 fatalities, including 198 SF personnel, 78 civilians, 74 Maoists, and another 18 in the unspecified category. Since then, however, though the overall fatalities have followed a cyclical trend, the situation has improved.

Meanwhile, several efforts have commenced to contain Maoist activities. On February 7, 2025, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) set up a new Company Operative Base (COB) at Kutul in the Abujhmadh region of Narayanpur District. The establishment of the new COB is intended to reduce and control the CPI-Maoist activities in Abujhmadh, and to instil confidence and a sense of security among locals of Narayanpur, Bijapur, and Dantewada.

On January 23, 2025, a CPI-Maoist training camp with elaborate infrastructure for training by was captured by the SFs at Bhattiguda village in Bijapur District. The Maoists, who had constructed barrack-like structures at the site, fled before the forces arrived. The training camp was located in the core area of the armed cadres of the Peoples’ Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), the Maoists’ military wing, belonging to their ‘Battalion No-1’, in the forested terrain of Bhattiguda. A Shaheed Smarak (martyrs memorial pillar) and concrete structures in the area were also destroyed by the forces at the scene.

On January 17, 2025, DRG troops returning from an operation spotted a deep, long and narrow tunnel that the CPI-Maoist used as an easy hideout, and to stockpile arms and ammunition, as well as a staging ground for ambushes in Bijapur District. While the exact dimensions of the Maoist bunker are not immediately known, it was large enough for five or six persons to move around amid a huge dump of explosives, machines, generators and pipes. Videos and photographs of the site show a tunnel, a narrow entry to go below the earth’s surface, which widens into the underground lair. The walls were made of packed earth with niches cut into the surface for sunlight and ventilation. A huge dump of Maoist literature, pipes, wires, generators, etc., was recovered from the spot. Bastar Range, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Sundarraj P. disclosed,

We have ventured into the Maoists’ stronghold of PLGA Company number one and Central Regional Committee [CRC] and now we have started to disturb their facility, which they used to make BGL (Barrel Grenade Launcher) shells, IEDs, which prove detrimental to both security forces and civilians. Such tunnels serve as safe bunkers and are used by Maoists as hideouts during operations, store ammunitions etc. Such bunkers are not unusual for a Maoist stronghold region such as Bijapur, south Bastar and Abujhmadh in Narayanpur districts, which have huge patches with scarce population. It’s easy for Maoists to make such a hide-out.

Despite substantial improvements in Chhattisgarh’s security situation, concerns remain. The state failed to contain civilian fatalities, a key index of security in an area/region. At least six fatalities have already been recorded in this category in the current year (data till February 9, 2025), and 57 civilians were killed in 2024. At peak in 2006, at least 186 civilian fatalities were recorded and, since March 6, 2000, when SATP started documenting LWE-related incidents of killing, there have been at least 1,051 such fatalities in the state.

A January 27, 2025, report, indicated that, according to the Chhattisgarh Police, the number of active CPI-Maoist ‘politburo’ members is down to just: ‘general secretary’ Namballa Keshava Rao aka Basavaraju (67), Mupalla Laxman Rao aka Ganapathy (75), Mallajula Venugopal Rao aka Sonu (62), and Misir Besra (64), down from 16 in 2004, on account of killings, arrests, surrenders, and deaths due to illnesses. The other key decision-making body of the CPI-Maoist, the ‘central committee (CC),’ comprises of 11 to 12 active members, down from 32. Apart from the four ‘politburo’ members, who are also ‘CC’ members, the Police documents mention Thippari Tirupathi aka Devji (64); Kadari Satyanarayana Reddy aka Kosa (72); Ganesh Uike (60); and Pullari Prasad Rao aka Chandranna (60) as its active living members. Patiram Manjhi aka Anil da, believed to be in hiding in Jharkhand, Modem Balakrishna, and Gajarla Ravi, all ‘CC’ members, do not figure in the Chhattisgarh Police’s list of “active/alive” top Maoist leaders, for some reason. The second-rung leadership largely comprises members high on guerrilla tactics, mostly hailing from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, but with limited ideological and strategic vision.

The Maoists are fighting a desperate battle in their last strongholds, the final bastion, Chhattisgarh. Retaliatory attacks can be expected in response to the devastating SF operations, as can efforts for a revival. Rebel capacities, however, have been severely degraded, even as their geographical areas of dominance – indeed, even of relative safety – have been progressively circumscribed to narrow areas, principally in Abujhmadh. Even here, a steady advance of SF camps and bases are making movement and operations difficult. The ongoing bloodbath can serve no constructive purpose, and it is high time that both sides consider compromises – not, as is presently the case with state initiatives, in the language of surrender and annihilation, but of negotiation and accommodation.