The deadly attack by Naxalites in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada which claimed the lives of 10 police personnel and one civilian has thrown a spotlight on Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) in India, and official figures reveal a high incidence of LWE violence in Chhattisgarh.
The attack on Wednesday was the biggest by Maoists on security forces in Chhattisgarh since 2021, when 22 security personnel were killed in an ambush along the borders of Sukma and Bijapur districts.
As per the Ministry of Home Affairs, the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Kerala are considered LWE affected, although in varying degrees.
Among these states, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar are considered to be severely affected; West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are considered partially affected; Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are considered slightly affected. In Chhattisgarh, fourteen districts are considered LWE-affected.
From 2017 to 2021, Chhattisgarh logged the highest number of crimes committed by Maoists, as per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. The NCRB figures further revealed that Chhattisgarh topped in the number of murders, attempted murders, loot and arson by Maoists by a long margin followed by Jharkhand and Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, last month, Home Minister Amit Shah had said that incidents of LWE violence had declined by 76 per cent in the country as compared to 2010. Official data appears to indicate the same, showing an overall decline in the total number of such crimes in the country in the last four years.
As per NRCB, a total of 891 cases against Maoists were registered in India in 2018 and Chhattisgarh accounted for 492 of these, followed by Assam (188) and Maharashtra (75). This was an increase from the previous year when the total cases registered against Maoists numbered 652, including 492 in Chhattisgarh and 84 in Manipur.
Since then, the total number of cases registered against Maoists has decreased to 514 in 2019, 533 in 2020, and finally dropping to 387 in 2021. In 2021, Chattisgarh accounted for 243 of the total number of crimes registerd, followed by Jharkhand (41) and Andhra Pradesh (29).
The official statistics further shows that a total of 70 murders were committed by Maoists in 2021 and 57 of these were reported in Chhattisgarh; similarly out of total 21 registered cases of loot by Maoists, 17 were reported in the state. Chhattisgarh also topped the list with 87 cases of attempt to murder by Maoists out of total 109 cases registered nationally. The state also tops in cases of arson with 13 out of 19 total cases registered, as per the data.