How a Maoist den ditched violence for the fruits of development

The motorcycle coughed as it hit a deep rut in the forest trail, sending up a cloud of red dust. Towering sagwan trees loomed overhead, guarding a land long off-limits to outsiders.Rajendra Badge, a 27-year-old revenue official in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, gripped the handlebars firmly. Behind him, this correspondent tightened his hold as the bike skidded over loose gravel.Abujhmarh — once the heartland of India’s longest-running Maoist insurgency — was opening up. They were among the first outsiders to witness its transformation.The very thought of this journey would have been inconceivable a few years ago. Yet here they were — two men on a bike, weaving through narrow trails where the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) once dictated life and death.It was impossible not to think of The Motorcycle Diaries. Che Guevara’s journey on an old Norton 500 ignited a revolution. Riding through Abujhmarh, a government official and a journalist found themselves at the opposite end of a revolution’s life cycle — not its birth, but its slow, inevitable decline.“How does it feel?” Badge asked. He didn’t wait for a reply and carried on: “I took up this job in 2012. Back then, we wouldn’t even consider setting foot here. The Maoists controlled everything — courts, schools, healthcare, even food distribution. The government was just a rumour.”Along the trail, an abandoned Maoist checkpoint stood in ruins, its rusted hammer-and-sickle insignia hanging upside down — defeated not by direct combat alone, but by a slow erosion of its foundation.Still, as the bike rattled through the rugged terrain, there was an unmistakable unease. “Not long ago, stopping here would have been suicide,” Badge muttered, glancing over his shoulder as if expecting shadows to emerge from the foliage. medium119158598For five decades, Abujhmarh — 4,000sq km of unyielding forest spanning Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli and Bastar in Chhattisgarh — was an autonomous Maoist stronghold, where security forces dared not enter.That has changed. The PLGA’s shadow administration Janatana Sarkar is gone. The parallel government has fallen. “Over 500sq km of Abujhmarh on the Maharashtra side has been reclaimed,” a senior police officer said.The fall of Abujhmarh was gradual. Security forces delivered decisive blows — killing 34 Maoists in Kasnasoor (2018), eliminating leader Milind Teltumbde and 26 cadres in Mardintola (2021), and securing the final surrender of PLGA commander Giridhar in 2024.“Maharashtra’s anti-Naxal force has been relentless,” said Gadchiroli SP Neelotpal. Battle-hardened commando force C-60 built an intelligence network, tracked Maoist movements, and set up fortified police stations deep in the jungle.“Only 45 Maoists are left in the forests on the left bank of Indravati (river). The rest have been neutralised or surrendered,” Neelotpal said.At the same time, the government targeted the rebels’ support system — villagers. Two initiatives dismantled Maoist influence. Dadalora Khidki, a single-window service that helps villagers access welfare schemes. “This brought villagers closer to police for the first time,” Neelotpal said.Gaobandi was even more transformative. Entire villages took oaths to reject Maoists — refusing to attend their meetings, denying them shelter, and barring their entry. In return, they received government benefits. At least 22 villages in Bhamragarh taluka took the pledge.At Hetalwada, a tribal village, a group gathered near a newly installed mobile tower — a luxury in these parts. A few children peered at the approaching strangers. A woman stepped forward, holding a bank passbook and a Ladki Bahin card — proof of government aid.“For years, we were told the government would never come. Now we have Aadhaar cards, ration books… even mobile phones,” said Rekha Madavi. medium nocaptionhttp://youtu.be/QDgDQA8bFJc?si=ZCOYHu-L7HwPHPOMOne can’t help but think of Guevara’s Foco theory — the idea that a small group of armed revolutionaries could ignite mass uprisings. But here, the opposite had happened. The villagers, once the movement’s backbone, had abandoned it.“We have Aadhaar cards, caste certificates, ration cards,” said Watte Dolu Pungati, a tribal from Hetalwada, where villagers had recently taken the oath under Gaobandi. “We even have mobile phones after a 4G tower was set up. What we need next is an irrigation scheme.”His sentiments resonated with others. “We have bank accounts and documents. We need roads and hospitals,” said Kashinath Masu Madavi from Marda Malenga village.Abujhmarh is now seeing a wave of new projects. A 27km road is being built from Laheri to Kuwakori, linking Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. And a bridge over Indravati, a structure that would permanently break the isolation that had once allowed the Maoists to thrive.“This bridge will go a long way in ending their dominance,” said Aheri additional collector Vijay Bhakare.As the journey wound deeper, Badge stopped and pointed toward a hill. “Abujhmarh” in native Gondi tongue means “unfathomable highland”, broken down into “abujh” (mysterious) and “marh” (hill) — a name that reflects the region’s mystique.“You know, I used to believe these forests were untouchable,” he said. “That they belonged only to the guerrillas. But here we are. The fear is fading.”History has turned a page. In Guevara’s journey, a revolution was born. Here in Abujhmarh, they were witnessing the last traces of one disappearing into the red dust. medium119158517Bastar breaks free, rises from warzone to hope’s heartlandSchools that stood abandoned now resonate with the chatter of children. Outside, a dirt road hums with the steady movement of trucks. Their cargo: not arms, but bricks, cement and sacks of rice.For decades, Abujhmarh in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar belonged to the Maoist gun. Villages were caught in an unending war. Hope was a fragile thing. But something has shifted.Alongside sustained security operations that have reclaimed vast tracts of land from rebels, the trifecta of bijli, sadak and paani has emerged as a game-changer in the region since 2024.Streetlights pierce the darkness that once cloaked Maoist strongholds. Bulldozers plough the red earth, making way for roads. And for the first time in generations, taps in villages like Chhutwahi gush with clean water, sparing women the long, dangerous walk to distant streams.The numbers from 2024 onwards point to the shift: 234 gunfights with security forces, 282 Maoists killed, nearly 950 surrendered, and 1,105 arrested. More than 50 schools reopened, electricity reached dozens of villages. Roads — long unfinished, long feared — now connect forgotten corners of Bastar to the rest of Chhattisgarh.“Maoists have suffered massive losses, but they can still draw blood in pockets where they remain,” an internal security veteran said.Security forces have executed a strategy as unrelenting as the insurgency they seek to dismantle: push into Maoist strongholds, drive the rebels out, and hold the ground at any cost. medium119158574Operations were carried out across Bastar, assisted by drones, satellite tracking, and an intricate web of human intelligence. The Maoists’ famed familiarity with the land was no longer an advantage. They were outwitted, outgunned and outlasted.Every surrender brought new information. Every captured courier chipped away at Maoist supply lines. The insurgency, starved of both manpower and rations, began to crumble from within.“For the first time in years, Maoists are running out of food,” Bastar IG P Sundarraj said. “Hundreds of surrendered cadres tell us the same thing — life in the insurgent ranks is unbearable.”Police camps dot Bastar’s once-forbidden terrain. They are lifelines. Around them, markets spring up, buses begin to run, ration shops open their doors, and villages — long cut off — begin to breathe again.“Security camps are bringing development that people want. We are hopeful of reaching the desired goal,” IG Sundarraj said.Union home minister Amit Shah has clearly set the goal — complete elimination of Maoist insurgency by March 2026.It is not just the gun that is breaking the insurgency in Bastar. The government has extended a hand to those willing to lay down their arms. A new surrender policy offers a stipend of ₹10,000 a month, vocational training, education, and even housing. The impact is visible. High-ranking commanders are defecting — their disillusionment outweighing their fear.