Within days of the arrival of the first Army unit landing in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region for the first time, to set up the training area there, on June 9, 2011, Maoists launched their most deadly attack in Dantewada district, using nearly a tonne of explosives — the highest ever — blowing up an anti-landmine vehicle and killing 10 policemen. Earlier the same day, the terrorists gunned down five policemen in Narayanpur district and in another raid later in Dantewada district, they attacked a CRPF camp killing three personnel. The forest where they gunned down five policemen in Narayanpur district is adjacent to the one allotted by Chattisgarh government to the Army as a training area.
While these attacks may well have been launched as what some media reports referred to as “taunts” for the Army, the Maoists seething over the Army’s presence there also planted posters saying “Laal Salaam (red salute) Army waapis jao (go back)” etc, may at some stage even attempt attacks on its detachments. The central and state governments need to be clear about the terms of engagement. The Army is there for training, but if attacked, it will have to respond appropriately.
The thickly forested area of Abujhmad, located in Chattisgarh’s southern region of Bastar was surveyed effectively for the first time in recent years. It is believed that even Mughal emperor Akbar, who last tried to survey Abujhmad for purposes of revenue collection, abandoned the effort after finding it nearly impossible. In April, 2008, Chhattisgarh completed an aerial survey of 237 villages in Abujhmad which was done purely for revenue purposes as the government had earlier not managed to find access there. Maps of the forest with the help of photographs taken during the survey are being prepared. Spread over about 4,000 sq km, Abujhmad is reportedly a stronghold of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist that runs dozens of training camps there. The forests also reportedly serve as a hideout for frontline Maoist leadership and with Maoists dominating the area, the ground survey will be a tough assignment to say the least. And so will the Army’s implementation of the long term plan to establish its training area.
In 2010, 625 sq kms of land at the edge of Abujhmad forest was sanctioned to the Army for a training troops in various drills and tactics of jungle warfare, not involving firing of live ammunition. Headquarters, Chattisgarh and Orissa sub area was raised at Raipur, for smooth administration during training. Although the Army’s projected requirement was of 1,600 sq kms, whatever the Chattisgarh government sanctioned was most welcome as many of the Army’s training areas have shrunk much over the past decades owing to rising population and urbanisation. In fact, only three ranges suitable for integrated training are left with the Army — those at Babina, Mahajan and Pokhran. With a very large strength of the Army located in the Central, Western and Southern parts of India, this offer of an exclusive training area in Chattisgarh could not have come at a better time, especially when the Army is negotiating hard, both with state governments and encroachers to keep the remaining ranges intact. The 104 field firing ranges it once had, have now reduced to 66 and with notifications of many ranges steadily expiring, re-notification is becoming more and more difficult due to environmental laws and safety concerns.
The way Mahajan ranges were raised seems to be the ideal model to replicate in this new training area in Chattisgarh, as its probably the best example of how, contrary to general perceptions, it can actually help develop a region, both economically and ecologically. Acquired in 1982, the Mahajan Field Firing Range, supports annual field firing by more than 250 units —mostly artillery, armoured, mechanised infantry and some infantry units. More than the contract for collection of scrap which fetches `8-9 crores (80-90 million) annually to local contractors and provides employment to nearly 1500-2000 people, its the money spent by these one lakh (1,00,000) temporary residents on supplies, communications, transportation and stores (all procured locally), that generates a huge revenue for the villagers and the region, even the administration then gears up. As a result there are tree-lined black-top roads running all across the range boundary, water channels (both of the Indira Gandhi Canal and Bikaner Link Canal) which are perennially full, and 24 hours electricity to boast of. Now, going a step further, the Army — in a “Giving Back Mode” — proposes to raise an Ecological Battalion of the Territorial Army, with one company each dedicated to the three ranges at Babina, Mahajan and Pokhran — thus spreading a green revolution in these erstwhile arid regions.
The Army’s presence is bound to improve life for the locals in a number of ways. It will provide employment and business for many who are impoverished and have been living in conditions of poor or no communication and scarce resources. Interacting with this writer, Brigadier (Retd), B.K. Ponwar, director, Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College at Kanker and security adviser to the government of Chattisgarh, said: “This is the first time that any sizeable strength of the Army has moved into this region and will indeed open it up to the outside world. Purchase of local materials and supplies will bring in jobs and finance to cash-strapped villages. The Army’s presence will not only bring a feeling of security to the village, but will also be a psychological advantage over the Naxalites, wherein Naxalites will be very worried that the tiger is sitting outside their den.”
The Narayanpur forest and the adjacent areas have all the wherewithal to be developed as an ideal training area for conventional and counter-insurgency operations in jungle terrain. According to Lt. Col. Bhasker Gupta, posted at Army HQs, the Army is also looking at training battle groups in amphibious operations involving crossing water obstacles. With a large number of dams and rivers, and rail connectivity to Raipur, Dhamtari provides an ideal training area for such needs. The Army proposes to set up an aqua-sports node at Dhamtari for kayaking, rowing and sailing. This facility will not only help in tapping potential talent amongst locals and provide secure job opportunities, but may also produce potential national/Olympic sportsmen in the distant future.
The Army is also looking at establishing its National School for Counter Insurgency Warfare, akin to the Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Varaingte, Mizoram, where troops can be put through a state-of-the-art training programme related to the terrain, security situation and socio-cultural aspects of that region.
The Army also has plans to set up a Rashtriya Military School, for not only children of its personnel but also those of Chhattisgarh to study and develop it as a world class institution. The state government has already accorded “in principle approval” for this proposal. The related benefits of the Army’s civic action projects, besides ameliorating the conditions of locals, also generate goodwill, especially amongst the alienated population. Besides education, these shall include training youth for recruitment into the Armed Forces, medical and veterinary care, developmental projects like power generation, improving connectivity by making tracks and laying foot bridges, and such others. Further, this will facilitate the state administration to take advantage of environment becoming secure by the presence of the Army, to jumpstart the economy.
This is an ideal opportunity for the state administration to initiate long overdue developmental projects. If implemented meaningfully, they will bring about a quantum change for a populace that has existed in a state of neglect for very long. Transforming the lifestyle of the locals is bound to have a positive effect on the insurgency, which has thrived owing to decades of deprivation of basic development.
The proposed school will also help train and transform —in real time — a sizeable number of paramilitary forces (PMF), a task presently being done on ad-hoc basis by an Army’s infantry regimental centre.
Anil Bhat, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhi