Reds turn green crusaders in Bihar

  Naxalites, owing allegiance to the banned outfit CPI (Maoists), are on an afforestation drive in the Chalho hills of Rafiganj in Aurangabad district. The dense jungle is around 250 km from the State Capital where even the armed police fear to tread.

The naxalites are so obsessed with the greenery of the hills that they have put a blanket ban on collecting leaves or cutting trees for firewood. Any villager from nearby areas found defying their diktat is meted out harsh punishment. The punishment could be in the form of sound thrashing in the kangaroo court, or the guilty could be even held captive for days.

This is the same area where the erstwhile Maoists Communists Centre, the outfit which merged with People’s War Group in 2004, was founded by Kanhai Chatterjee in the 70s.

Earlier, it was quite common for locals to enter the forest area and collect leaves and wood for fuel. “But of late, many of them were mercilessly beaten up by the Reds as these naxalites have become a green crusader and launched a crackdown on those who try to disbalance the ecology,” said an influential local, seeking anonymity.

While environmentalists may hail such move, the police look it in a different perspective. “Ever since the police have waged a war against naxalites, these underground guerrillas have limited space for their hideouts. The shrinking forest has only added to their woes. It’s against this backdrop that the Reds have turned ‘green’ crusader,” said a top cop. “Recently these Maoists issued a diktat to the villagers to stop felling of trees and save forest cover so that the police could not venture to make inroads into the areas which, so far, has remained inaccessible for the men-in-uniform,” he dwelt at length about the changing colours of Reds.