Chhattisgarh: Bijapur looks to future without Maoist shadow

E-PaperSubscribeSubscribeEnjoy unlimited accessSubscribe Now! Get features like Bijapur : On Tuesday morning, in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, security force companies set out to patrol road stretches, the way they have always done. Bijapur: Senior Maoist commander Papa Rao, a member of the Dandakaranaya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) and in-charge of south Sub Zonal Bureau of Maoists, with his team members after their surrender, in Bijapur district, Chhattisgarh, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (PTI Photo) (PTI03_24_2026_000325B) (PTI)Does this ground look freshly dug? Has this bush been pressed down forcibly? Was this rock here when we last surveyed this stretch? These are the questions they ask, even as they, with the help of sniffer dogs and mine detectors, sweep the sides of roads. Typically, two teams work together, starting from points 10km apart, and covering 5km to the middle, where they meet. They do this every day, day after day. And they have been doing so since the time the forces established camps in what was once the heart of the Red Corridor. Tuesday was no exception. Later in the day, India would declare that the war against Left Wing Extremism (LWE) had been won. For the first time in over six decades, the country appears free of Maoist control. No villages remain under their dominance, and the political and military leadership of the CPI (Maoist) — barring one — has surrendered, been arrested, or been killed. The lone remaining Central Committee member is inactive, hiding, and without the military strength he once commanded. But here in Bijapur, the absence of violence does not mean peace. At least, not yet. Bijapur is one of the two LWE (or Naxalism) affected districts that remain; the other is Sukma. The number is down from 38 in 2024 and 157 in 2006. Spread across 8,529 sq km and bordering Telangana and Maharashtra, it was once the biggest recruitment ground for the Maoists’ military wing. Even on Tuesday when Chhattisgarh recorded the surrender of 33 Maoists, 25 were from Bijapur. It was inside the national park area that the Naxals had hidden around ₹2.90 crore in cash and 7.2kg gold. Last month’s recovery of over ₹3 crore cash and 1kg gold too happened here. “The money and gold was kept in a steel container and buried 8-9 feet in the ground. Only some top leaders knew about it. They had also chopped the branches of a tree near it in a certain way to identify the location. Apart from cash, the forest area here was full of IEDs,” an officer part of the operation said on condition of anonymity. Police records trace the roots of the insurgency here to 1980, when Maoists first entered Bastar—then part of undivided Madhya Pradesh — from Andhra Pradesh through the dense forests of present-day Bijapur to establish their guerrilla base. “With almost 70-80% of the district comprising forests, this was the best cover for Naxals to set up their base,” said Jitendra Yadav, superintendent of police (Bijapur). And they set up people’s governments (Janatana Sarkars) everywhere. “The Indravati national park was their core area. Until two years ago, Bijapur had at least 101 active Janatana Sarkars . One Sarkar governed 3-4 villages. There are around 699 villages of which only 580 are inhabited. Today there is no Naxal government at any village but we still follow protocol. There are no gunfights now so a majority of the police team is engaged in rebuilding trust with the local population,” added Yadav. There’s a recognition that this will take time. And the cost of haste will be measured in lives. “There is no military formation but you still have to be careful. Naxalism is an ideology and it will take some time to win over the people. A radicalised person hiding as a villager could place an IED to take revenge for what has happened to the Naxal army. They may not have revealed the location of all IEDs. Taking chances in a place like Bastar can cost lives,” said a second security forces official, who asked not to be named. Bijapur alone, accounted for 734 of the 900 IEDs the forces found in Bastar range last year. The number this year has already crossed 195. Forces across the district are currently engaged in a massive de-mining exercise. And other arms of the state are doing their bit to reach out to people. District collector Sambit Mishra said the Maoists had, over the years, forced 325 schools across the district to shut. “We have reopened 264 in the past two years. Gradually more will be reopened. Around 900kms of roads are also being built. Border Roads Organisation is engaged in building a 40km-long road connecting the town with Tarem and Pamer, which were once the strongholds of the Maoists.” The local administration is also working to restore identity and benefits. Mishra said that most villagers in areas controlled by the Naxals do not have any identity papers. “Officials are walking to villages to make their documents. Teams are travelling on foot to these villages so that villagers avail all benefits. Tractors are taking food grains to the closest available spot where the items are dropped for PDS distribution.” The objective is simple: heal people, win hearts, and convince that the state is not their enemy. That’s an especially challenging task in Bijapur where the scars are still fresh. Bijapur is where the first blood was drawn, in what officials describe as the final push against the Maoist insurgency. Nearly four months after the new BJP government came to power in the state, the area saw the first of the hundreds of gunfights that would decimate Naxals. On April 2, 2024, security forces killed 13 Naxals in an encounter — the biggest such operation in a decade at the time. Exactly two weeks later, 29 more Naxals were killed in the nearby Bastar Kanker district by a BSF team. Months later, on February 9, 2025, this record too was broken when 31 Maoists were killed in a single operation in Bijapur. A trooper who has been part of dozens of operations over the last two years said the approach shifted drastically in 2024: “With BJP governments in both the state and the Centre, and the announcement of a deadline, the nature of operations changed. It became a competition to get more surrenders or neutralise top leaders. Forces started sending 2,000-3,000 personnel out in a single operation. Teams from different districts would enter the jungle and encircle the Naxals leaving them with no option but to surrender. It started from Bijapur.” But it wasn’t all one way. Between 2024 and 2026, Naxals killed at least 74 civilians in Bijapur for acting as informers for police. This year a villager died when he stepped accidentally on an IED. Even today, the district still has the heavy deployment of forces — over 15,000 CRPF personnel and around 4,000 from the Chhattisgarh police. Thus far this year, Bijapur has seen eight gunfights in which 13 Naxals have died; 154 have surrendered. Police and security forces hope the war is over and the tag of the most affected Naxal district is removed from Bijapur. But on ground, caution is the key. When security forces travel to villages for civic outreach, they find the villagers welcoming -- but they still travel in groups. A third officer explains why. ”Many villagers have lost their friends and family members to our bullets in the last two to three years. They may be angry and want to avenge by attacking us with whatever they have at home. Even one such incident will set us back by months.” Prawesh Lama covers crime, policing, and issues of security in Delhi. Raised in Darjeeling, educated in Mumbai, he also looks at special features on social welfare in the National Capital.