Dindori bears brunt of Maoist-police game
FITARI (DINDORI): Fitari is quiet. The kind of quiet that can only exist in a village in the middle of a Sal forest. And the kind of quiet that can only exist in a village whose habitants are famously reclusive. A thin black tar road snakes its way to the village, cutting through the Maikal hills, crossing small rivulets. As the rare vehicle passes through the village, playing children scatter and adults stop and stare.
The sound of engines and strange faces are equally rare here, but the demeanour of people shows a disquiet that comes from a new threat. Over the past year, uniformed visitors, both Maoists and the police, have become increasingly frequent. And for villages in Dindori, now on the country’s Maoist map, that can only mean trouble.
In July, the Union home ministry revised its list of districts affected by Left Wing Extremism, bringing them down from 90 to 70. In every affected state, except one, the number of districts either stayed the same, or declined. The only exception was Madhya Pradesh, where Dindori was added to the list. The list has also seen the addition of Chhattisgarh’s Mungeli district, but that replaces another district, Balod. Mungeli shares a border with Dindori, and another district on the list, Kabirdham (also in Chhattisgarh). For security agencies, this is an admission that a decade-long expansion project of the Maoists into a region called the MMC (Maharashtra-madhya Pradesh-chhattisgarh
confluence) zone, first spotted in 2012, requires focussed attention.
For 17-year-old Maha Singh Dhruv, the classification comes with a sense of dread. “For the last year, I have been afraid of entering the forest thinking that if someday they (Maoists) meet me and ask for help, what will I do? I will have to help them because they carry weapons, but if I do, the police will ask a hundred questions.”
Dhruv is a Baiga, a tribe that accounts for at least 80% of the population in Fitari, which has a population of 500 voters. The tribe, famously reclusive, is one of the 75 notified Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups(pvtg) in the country. Dhruv lost his father very young, and lives in small oneroom hut with his mother. He once went to school but dropped out once his father died. Like everyone else in the village, he has no income. There is paddy that grows seasonally in two acres of land, and a small kitchen garden where there are long stalks of maize. The rest, the forest has always provided for. But with the peace beginning to fray, Dhruv wants to leave. “I need a job in Dindori town, 80 kilometres away.”
The police focus is on three police station areas in Dindori district, Samnapur, Bajag and Karanjiya. But senior officials said earlier this year, they were given inputs of a team of Maoists attempting to speak to villagers in Fitari. Silence is perhaps the best escape and Dhule Baiga, another villager, has an answer everyone else does too. “I know nothing,” he says.
Sanjay Singh, superintendent of police, Dindori, said the police have noticed movement of Maoists and their interactions with villagers in and around 65 villages, mostly in “Baiga Chak.”
In 1890, the then colonial government notified “Baiga Chak” as an area that the Baigas lived, where they would practice shifting agriculture, locally called “Bewar”. At the time, the Baiga Chak had seven villages, but the term is now commonly used to refer to 52 villages, both in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
But even if villagers are afraid to talk of the increase presence of Maoists, the police argue that there are clear indications of their growing presence. In 2018, a mere 4km away from Fitari, in the biggest local market in Dhurkuta, where everything from an umbrella to spices are sold, a driver spotted a group of 28 armed cadres crossing the forests. “I remember it was a chilly morning and I was returning from a marriage in Dhurkuta. I counted them. Initially , I thought they were police personnel but later because they were very cautious, I realised that they are Maoists,” said the driver, tracked down by HT, who lives in Chhattisgarh’s Kabhirdham and asked not to be named.
Acting on this information, the police had at the time, sent teams to the village and found telltale footprints at the spot the driver mentioned. “I tried to ask the villagers but most said nothing. Only one elderly Baiga told me that he saw those people twice, walking outside the village,” a local police officer said.
Officers of the Chhattisgarh and
Madhya Pradesh Police believe the Maoists are developing a new base in the dense Amarkantak forests. Amarkantak is where the Vindhya, Maikal and Satpura ranges converge in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
In 2012, the Central Committee of the CPI (Maoist) decided to form this new zone, apart from the one already operational in Bastar called the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC). Documents accessed by the police show that by 2017 the work of “social investigation” was completed by “vistar platoons” covering more than 500 villages in the area. The aim is to create another “Abhujhmaad”, which is a 4,000sq-km area in south Bastar, unmapped by the government, and known to be the area where members of the Central Committee of the Cpi(maoist) live and from where they operate.
Surrendered cadres told police that the Maoists have surveyed the forests to map water bodies, high vantage points to watch the movement of troops and police stations in a bid to create a safe zone. Police
records show that there are a total of 85 armed cadres operating in the area, of which 34 are women.
The increase in the Maoist presence is also throwing up a familiar, hotly contested argument, one that has caused much strife in areas such as Bastar -- the growing police presence. The Dindori Police plan to set up four new police camps in the area, at Chauradadar , Padaripani , Chada and Gaurakanhari , all in Baiga Chak. In Dhurkuta, this plan worries Arjun Singh Dhruv, president of the Baiga Nritak Dal and a retired teacher. “I don’t know about Maoists and their presence in this area, but one thing is concerning for us – our freedom. When the forces will be deployed, we will be caged.”
Dhruv said that Baiga culture has very little crime, close to no theft, so much so that there are very few homes that even own a lock. “The nearest police station, Bajag is 28 km from this village, but when the police from outside (referring to paramilitary personnel) come to this area they definitely intrude into our daily lives, and can harass us,” he said.
But Ved Ram Hanote, station house officer of Bajag police station, said he has spotted signs of a shift in stance and vocabulary in some sections of the population. “We have information that some people, possibly Maoists, are entering remote villages of Baiga Chak and encouraging the residents to encroach forest land for cultivation. To me it seems that the language of Baigas has changed; they have a new vocabulary where some are talking about rights and laws. Rights and laws are not bad in themselves, just that the change in words tells me that a new influence has seeped in.”
Although there has been no recorded Maoist violence in Dindori, the district police believe that the villages inside the forest of Dindori are now a safe area for Maoists. In March, a massive antinaxal operation was launched by the Mandla police where, under fire, the Maoists escaped towards Dindori and settled there for about a week. “They travel along a river called Kharmer, which borders the two states, every time they feel pressure in Chhattisgarh or Mandla,” said Singh, the Dindori SP, adding that the state government had been trying to include
Dindori in MHA’S list for last two years.
He said that he hoped that the inherent reclusiveness of the Baigas would stem the spread of Maoist influence, but hidden in that, is a double edged sword. “They rarely entertain outsiders and therefore the chances of widespread Maoist influence is less. But if the Maoists do manage this, then it would be really difficult for us because they rarely say anything to the police,” added Singh. The district plans to deploy only Baiga policemen in these areas, who will aid the paramilitary in their operations, and attempt to “keep a check on them.” The plan is to deploy 400 central forces, but augment them with 550 district police personnel. “We have started training officers to prevent any harassment . The behaviour of police must change while working in these tribal dominated areas otherwise the Maoists could take advantage and we will lose the trust of the community,” said the SP.
However, within the state apparatus, there is no unanimity on what is clearly a complicated question. Intelligence officials HT spoke to said that the increase in deployment itself may be just what the Maoists wanted. “I think that the Maoists want such a deployment of police forces because this will make tribes feel threatened and in turn, they can create ideological space for themselves. What is the need of such a huge deployment?” an officer posted in the region said on condition of anonymity.
In Chhattisgarh’s neighbouring Mungeli district, around 50 villages of the Khudiya post in Lormi, are being watched closely by the state. Police functionaries said that all of these are Baiga dominated villages and more than 10 “interactions” have been recorded in the past year. Remote and sparsely populated, these villages are cut off in the monsoon. “My brother lives in Aurapani and guards a small rest house there. He told me that about a year ago , four people in black uniform came and asked him several questions about and topography. They enter our village from Ajgar Pahad,” said Chamran Singh Baiga, who once lived in Aurapanu, but has since moved to Mahuamacha village.
A senior police officer, posted in Chhattisgarh’s capital of Raipur said that Mungeli has developed into an area of strategic importance for the MMC zone. “We have included the district in our list Khudiya outpost is the entrance point of their base area –the Amarkantak forests. If they get support or recruitment from the villages alongside, it will be very difficult to contain them in next few years,” added the officer who asked not to be named.
Chhattisgarh DGP DM Awasthi said that the state wanted to be careful with its planning and deployment and not exacerbate a sensitive situation. “In 2018, Kabirdham was added in MHA’S list and now we have decided to add Mungeli. The reason is simple, Maoists are expanding the MMC zone towards Amarkantak and it is important to check them. We are still thinking about deployment and based on intelligence inputs decisions will be taken.”