India now Naxal-free: HM
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has officially communicated to nine state governments that no district in India is now classified as Left Wing Extremism (LWE) violence-affected — ending a classification system that, at its peak, covered 126 districts across 10 states.
The MHA communication, issued in April 2026, followed a comprehensive security review establishing that 37 districts are now categorised as "Legacy and Thrust districts" (where insurgency has been eliminated but vigilance is required to prevent resurgence) and one district — West Singhbhum in Jharkhand — as a "District of Concern."
The declaration follows the killing in May 2025 of the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the outfit's top ideological and operational leader, during a multi-agency security operation in Chhattisgarh.
Operation Kagar — meaning "Final Mission" — was the principal security operation driving this outcome, involving approximately 20,000 security personnel from the CRPF and Chhattisgarh Police across the Bastar division.
The nine states informed by MHA are: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, and West Bengal.
Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in India: Origins and Trajectory
Left Wing Extremism in India — also called Naxalism or the Maoist insurgency — refers to the armed revolutionary movement inspired by the ideology of Mao Zedong and the 1967 Naxalbari peasant uprising in West Bengal.
Key Details
- The Naxalbari uprising (1967) in Darjeeling district gave the movement its name; it was led by peasants demanding land redistribution under the leadership of Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal.
- The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) was founded in 1969 from this movement; subsequent splits produced multiple organisations, eventually consolidating into CPI (Maoist) in 2004.
- At its peak (2009–2010), the LWE movement operated across 126 districts in 10 states — the "Red Corridor" — spanning Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Karnataka.
- The movement exploited tribal land alienation, displacement by development projects, lack of governance penetration, and adivasi grievances in forested areas.
- LWE-related violence peaked around 2010 with over 1,000 incidents and more than 1,000 fatalities annually; by 2025, incidents had declined to historically low levels.
The MHA's declaration that no district remains LWE-affected marks the culmination of a sustained 15-year counter-insurgency and development campaign — but the creation of "Legacy and Thrust" and "District of Concern" categories signals that the threat is suppressed, not eliminated.
SAMADHAN Strategy: India's Counter-LWE Framework
SAMADHAN is the MHA's comprehensive strategic framework for combating Left Wing Extremism, enunciated in 2017 as a multi-dimensional policy covering security, development, and governance.
Key Details
- SAMADHAN is an acronym: Smart Leadership, Aggressive Strategy, Motivation and Training, Actionable Intelligence, Dashboard-Based Key Result Areas and Key Performance Indicators, Harnessing Technology, Action Plan for Each Theatre, No Access to Financing.
- Security components: Intelligence-based operations coordinated between CRPF and state police; forward operating bases (FOBs) in previously inaccessible areas; drone and satellite surveillance; and a generous surrender and rehabilitation policy.
- Development components: Special Central Assistance (SCA) for LWE-affected districts; road connectivity under the Road Connectivity Project for LWE Areas (RCPLWEA); mobile tower installation; banking penetration; Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT); Eklavya Model Residential Schools; and health sub-centres.
- The strategy integrates the Aspirational Districts Programme (now Aspirational Districts Initiative) and Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan for comprehensive tribal development.
- Key institutional mechanism: The MHA convenes regular annual reviews with Chief Ministers and senior officials of LWE-affected states to monitor the strategy's implementation.
The MHA's declaration is the most concrete result of SAMADHAN's integrated approach — combining security pressure (Operation Kagar) with the development penetration that deprived the Maoist movement of its social base.
Operation Kagar: The Final Security Push
Operation Kagar (meaning "Final Mission") was a large-scale multi-agency counter-insurgency operation concentrated primarily in the Bastar division of Chhattisgarh.
Key Details
- Approximately 20,000 security personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) — including specialised CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) units — and Chhattisgarh Police participated.
- Operational elements: establishment of forward operating bases (FOBs) across the Bastar region; use of drones and satellite imagery for intelligence; construction of over 612 new police stations in reclaimed areas; and a structured surrender-and-rehabilitation policy.
- The operation resulted in the killing of the general secretary of CPI (Maoist), Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, along with 26 other Naxals on May 21, 2025 — the highest-value neutralisation in the movement's history.
- The operation also saw a significant increase in Maoist surrenders, reflecting both security pressure and the functioning rehabilitation incentives under SAMADHAN.
- Chhattisgarh's Bastar division — comprising seven districts including Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kondagaon, Bastar, and Kanker — was historically the most violence-intensive zone in India.
Operation Kagar, particularly the killing of CPI (Maoist)'s top leadership, was the decisive operational development that allowed MHA to formally declare the end of the LWE-affected district classification in April 2026.
The Red Corridor and LWE-Affected District Classification System
The MHA has historically classified districts into categories based on the intensity of LWE violence and the capacity of state governments to respond.
Key Details
- "Highly Affected Districts" (HADs): Districts with the highest LWE violence incidence; received maximum Central security deployment and SCA.
- "LWE-Affected Districts": A broader category covering HADs and districts with some LWE presence but lower violence intensity.
- New classification (2026): "Legacy and Thrust districts" — 37 districts where LWE has been operationally eliminated but where continued administrative and developmental attention is warranted to prevent resurgence. "District of Concern" — West Singhbhum (Jharkhand) — the only district where some residual concern remains.
- The Red Corridor concept refers to the geographic belt of LWE activity running through central and eastern India; at peak, it covered parts of approximately 10 states from Andhra Pradesh in the south to Bihar/West Bengal in the north.
- LWE affected districts declined from 126 (2013) to 38 (2024) to zero (2026) under the active district classification.
The MHA's reclassification represents a formal closure of the "LWE-affected district" designation, but the "Legacy and Thrust" category signals that security and development resources will continue to flow to former hotspots — preventing the governance vacuum that originally enabled the movement.
- Origin of LWE in India: Naxalbari uprising, 1967, West Bengal.
- CPI (Maoist) formation: 2004 (merger of PWG and MCC).
- Peak LWE district count: 126 districts across 10 states (circa 2013).
- District count at time of declaration (2026): Zero active LWE-affected districts.
- "Legacy and Thrust" districts: 37.
- "District of Concern": 1 (West Singhbhum, Jharkhand).
- States informed by MHA: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, West Bengal.
- Operation Kagar personnel: approximately 20,000 (CRPF + Chhattisgarh Police).
- Police stations built in reclaimed areas: over 612.
- CPI (Maoist) general secretary killed: Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, May 21, 2025.
- SAMADHAN strategy enunciated: 2017.
- CRPF specialised unit for LWE: CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action).
- MHA declaration to states: April 2026 (following review as of March 31, 2026).