Following intelligence reports of Maoist elements infiltrating Kerala’s forests, the forest department has set in motion a first-of-its-kind participatory counter-insurgency drive to snuff out any signs of incipient Maoist activity in the state’s forests. Tribals, schoolteachers and kudumbashree workers will be in the vanguard of this fight which aims to make the state’s forests impossible for naxalites to penetrate.
The counter-insurgency will be carried out by forest vigil groups or Vana Meghala Jagrutha Samithis (VMJS). These groups have been set up at three levels: section level, range level and district level. Already, 300 section-level, 100 range-level and 14 district-level VMJSs have been formed. The section-level VMJS, the basic unit led by a forest range officer, is formed of people having local influence and a thorough knowledge of the forest terrain, like tribals, tribal schoolteachers, multi-grade study centre teachers, tribal promoters and kudumbashree members. Local police, excise, revenue and forest officials, too, will be part of the team.
These units will function as a local spy network. They will gather information on individuals and groups entering the forest area without permission and will keep a close watch on any suspicious happenings in the forest. Even those visiting tribal healers will be under their watch. They will also prepare a dossier of tribals who have left the settlements.
Information will be regularly passed on to the higher levels. The range-level groups will be led by the revenue divisional officer and the district-level groups by the district collector.
The Union home ministry had in May alerted the state of heightened Maoist activity at the “tri-junction” of the Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu borders. The Centre’s communiqué warned that Maoists had zeroed in on forest areas in Wayanad, Nilambur and Palakkad for their operations.