CRPF revives 17-year-old trade route in Naxal-hit area

A forward operating base housing armed troops has been created in one of the remotest and high-Maoist violence-affected district of Chhattisgarh which has led to the re-opening of a Tamarind trade route after 17 years, the CRPF said on Thursday.

The strategic FOB has been created at Bedre in the Sukma district of Bastar region which lies on the southernmost tip of the central Indian state, along the tri-junction of Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Odisha borders.

"This FOB will effectively help in the re-opening of the old trade route connecting the Tamarind market at Jagargunda with the nearby districts of Bijapur and Dantewada and will also choke the transit corridor that Maoists used for movement between west Bastar and south Bastar," a CRPF spokesperson said.

The base has been established by the joint efforts of the 165th battalion of the CRPF and the Chhattisgarh Police.

"The establishment of the Bedre FOB can be termed as historic as after 17 years, it reclaims from the clutches of the Maoists the old route which once facilitated the trade of tamarind and forest produce from Jagargunda - the prominent tamarind market of India, till the emergence of Maoist menace in 2006."

"In addition, the FOB will pave the way for development activities by allaying the fear of the Maoists," the officer said.

The paramilitary force has established some other FOBs sometime back in this remote Naxal violence-affected district, more than 400 kms from state capital Raipur, like Kunder and Silger (at a distance of about 5 kms each) and Jagargunda (around 10 kms away).

Around 14-15 FOBs have been established by the force over the last three years in Chhattisgarh.

The FOBs houses a small but strong and armed contingent of CRPF personnel who work to cut the supply chain of Maoists in remote and hardcore extremism-affected areas by not only undertaking quality operations but also by interacting with civilians, officials have said in the past.

The Central Reserve Police Force is the lead anti-Naxal operations force of the country and it has deployed close to one lakh personnel for this task in various LWE violence-affected districts including that in Chhattisgarh.

The Union government informed the Parliament in December 2022, that the geographical spread of the LWE has significantly reduced and only 191 police stations of 46 districts reported LWE-related violence in 2021 as compared to a high of 465 police stations of 96 districts in 2010.

The decline in the geographical spread is also reflected in the reduced number of districts covered under SRE (security-related expenditure) scheme and the number of these districts reduced from 126 to 90 in April 2018 and further to 70 in July 2021, data provided by Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai had said.

The number of districts contributing approximately 90 per cent of the LWE violence, categorised as most LWE-affected districts, also came down to 30 from 35 in 2018 and further to 25 in 2021, he said.