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A deadline, encounters, surrenders: The 2 years that dismantled Chhattisgarh’s Maoist bastions

March 31, 2026 5 min read Internal Security GS Paper 3 (Internal Security Challenges to Internal Security)
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What Happened

  • A two-year counter-insurgency campaign in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region, running from early 2024 through March 2026, has fundamentally altered the operational landscape for CPI (Maoist) forces
  • Security forces achieved their highest-ever annual elimination toll in 2024, neutralising over 219 Maoists in Bastar alone; the figure rose to over 280 state-wide in 2025, with Bijapur district accounting for 144 eliminations
  • A landmark encounter in Narayanpur district killed Nambala Keshav Rao (alias Basavaraju), the General Secretary of CPI (Maoist) and head of its Central Military Commission — the most senior Maoist leader ever neutralised in India
  • Since January 2024, over 2,100 Naxalites surrendered, 1,785 were arrested, and 477 were eliminated; in 2025 alone more than 1,500 laid down arms
  • State officials declared that nearly 96% of Bastar's geographical area is now free from Naxal influence, and no DKSZC-rank active Maoists remain operational in the state
  • Home Minister announced a target of eliminating Naxalism by March 2026, which broadly coincides with this operational phase completing

Static Topic Bridges

Left Wing Extremism (LWE) and the Red Corridor

Left Wing Extremism, rooted in Maoist ideology, refers to armed insurgencies seeking to overthrow the state through protracted guerrilla warfare, drawing support from marginalised tribal and rural populations. The CPI (Maoist), formed in 2004 through the merger of People's War Group and Maoist Communist Centre of India, has been the dominant LWE outfit, historically accounting for over 80% of LWE violence. At its peak, the Red Corridor — the geographic arc of LWE influence — spanned over 200 districts across 20 states. By March 2025, the Home Minister informed Parliament that active Naxalism had contracted to 18 districts, of which only six were classified as most affected.

  • CPI (Maoist) organisational hierarchy: Central Committee → Politburo → Central Military Commission → State/Zonal commands (DKSZC = Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, the apex Bastar unit)
  • LWE violence peaked around 2010 (over 1,000 incidents/year) and has declined sharply due to sustained counter-measures
  • The Red Corridor historically ran through Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh
  • A 25% reduction in LWE-perpetrated incidents was recorded in 2024 compared to the previous year

Connection to this news: The elimination of Nambala Keshav Rao — the General Secretary and military head of CPI (Maoist) — decapitated the national leadership structure, marking a qualitative shift beyond routine encounters; the collapse of Bastar's DKSZC marks the de facto end of the organisation's last functioning large-scale formation.

SAMADHAN Strategy — India's Counter-LWE Framework

Introduced by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2017, SAMADHAN is a comprehensive counter-insurgency framework that integrates security operations with development, rehabilitation, and governance. The acronym stands for: Smart Leadership, Aggressive Strategy, Motivation and Training, Actionable Intelligence, Data-Driven Monitoring, Harnessing Technology, Area-Specific Action Plans, and No Access to Financing. It moved India away from state-by-state reactive policing towards a unified national approach coordinating central paramilitary forces (CRPF, CoBRA battalions) with state police under Unified Command structures.

  • CoBRA (Combat Battalion for Resolute Action) — specialised CRPF unit trained for jungle warfare, deployed extensively in Bastar
  • SAMADHAN mandates that surrenders be paired with monetary assistance, vocational training, and housing under rehabilitation schemes such as Poona Margem
  • Technology elements include UAV surveillance, satellite imagery, and improved communication grids in erstwhile insurgency zones
  • Road construction, mobile connectivity, and banking access in cleared areas are integral to the doctrine's development component

Connection to this news: The two-year campaign's success — combining aggressive kinetic operations, high-value target elimination, and mass surrenders — is a textbook illustration of SAMADHAN's "cleared-hold-build" sequencing; the Poona Margem scheme's incentives directly drove the 2,100+ surrenders recorded since January 2024.

Tribal Governance, Forest Rights, and the Root Causes of LWE

The persistence and eventual decline of LWE cannot be understood purely through a security lens. LWE historically drew its cadre and support base from Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities in central India — groups with historical grievances around land alienation, inadequate implementation of Fifth Schedule provisions, displacement from forest-based livelihoods, and absence of state welfare delivery. The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution provides for Tribes Advisory Councils and the Governor's special powers to apply or modify laws in Scheduled Areas. The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA) further mandates gram sabha consent for land acquisition in tribal areas — provisions historically bypassed during mining and infrastructure projects.

  • Fifth Schedule governs administration of Scheduled Areas in 10 states (not Sixth Schedule states like Assam/Meghalaya)
  • PESA, 1996: Extends Panchayati Raj to Schedule V areas; gram sabha given primacy over land, minor forest produce, and local planning
  • Forest Rights Act, 2006: Recognises individual and community forest rights of forest-dwelling STs — its implementation gaps in Bastar districts were a Maoist recruitment driver
  • PM JANMAN scheme (2023) targets Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) with convergent welfare delivery

Connection to this news: The mass surrender wave signals not just military pressure but a perception shift among tribal communities — as development delivery improved in cleared areas and rehabilitation packages became credible, the Maoist promise of an alternative state lost its appeal, illustrating that security gains are sustainable only when matched by governance improvements.

Key Facts & Data

  • 219 Maoists neutralised in Bastar in 2024 — highest single-year toll in the state's history
  • Over 280 Maoists neutralised state-wide in 2025; Bijapur district alone: 144
  • 2,100+ surrenders, 1,785 arrests, 477 eliminations since January 2024
  • 1,500+ Naxalites surrendered in 2025 alone
  • 96% of Bastar's geographic area now declared free from Naxal influence
  • Nambala Keshav Rao (Basavaraju), General Secretary of CPI (Maoist), killed in Narayanpur district encounter — most senior Maoist leader ever eliminated
  • Red Corridor contracted from 200+ districts (peak) to 18 districts (2025), of which 6 are most affected
  • CoBRA battalions and CRPF formed the central operational backbone alongside Chhattisgarh state police
  • February 9, 2025 encounter in Bijapur's Indravati National Park: 31 Maoists killed in a single operation