Chhattisgarh wants Naga jungle warriors to counter Bastar Maoists

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Chhattisgarh wants Naga jungle warriors to counter Bastar Maoists

While Chhattisgarh government is using the development route to counter Naxal insurgency in the state, it wants some hard task masters in the jungle as well. The state government has written to ministry of home affairs seeking battalions of Nagaland's Indian Reserve Battalions, especially for the worst-hit Bastar region.

Naga fighters are considered the very best in jungle warfare for their no-nonsense fighting skills, survival tactics and toughness.

The move comes as the state government, along with Modi government in the Centre, spends thousands of crores for the development and education of the region. Modi, on a short visit on Saturday, kick-started schemes worth Rs 24,000 crore in Bastar region.

According to a rough estimate by the state officials, there are more than 5,000 Naxalites in Bastar region alone, where CRPF, state's STF, district force and local police are deployed. In total across the state, there are close to 40,000 central paramilitary forces personnel posted.
Chief minister Raman Singh said that ministry of home affairs has been approached to deploy Naga armed police force personnel and ministry will take up the matter with Nagaland government. "Experience shows that Nagaland battalions were very useful in fighting the Naxalites. They are very good at jungle warfare," said Singh.

Inspector general of police (Bastar region), S R P Kalluri, talking to TOI, said "The Naga forces, militarily, are far superior than any police force in the jungle. For fighting Naxal insurgency, they are the best".

Brigadier (retd) B K Ponwar, who runs the Counter-Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College in Kanker and has trained over 30,000 men, also agrees that Naga fighters would be very useful for the state. "They (Naga armed police forces men) are very quick in the jungle. They are good trackers, they can live off the land, are hardy, can eat anything and walk on the toughest terrain for long hours."

Last time, from 2006 to 2008, when Naga battalions were posted in Chhattisgarh, there complaints of human rights violations from several NGOs and organizations sympathetic to Maoists after which the Nagaland government withdrew the fighters from the BJP-ruled state.

"I presume they will be better disciplined this time," said Ponwar.

There are several challenges in front of Chhattisgarh government including construction of dams, railway lines, electrification of remote villages and construction of roads in the most disturbed regions. For constructing roads in most disturbed areas, sometimes the state has to deploy a huge force.

Raman Singh said that the Bastar region is bigger in size than Kerala and shares borders with other Maoist violence-affected states like Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra.

"Forces took 40 years to catch one Veerappan (dreaded sandalwood smuggler who was killed by security forces in 2004). There are thousands of Veerappans in the state. But we will catch each one of them," he said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...unter-Bastar-Maoists/articleshow/47241299.cms
There is no doubt that the Nagas are masters of jungle craft.

The are stealthy, fast, can cut through the jungle without difficulty, great ones to live off the land and also to improvise traps for jungle birds, animals and fowl wherein they do not require a huge logistic backup. They rely on indigenous medicines more than modern medicine and have a whole lot of qualities that others do not have to exist in the jungle.

If inducted into Bastar, they will give the Maoists a run for their money.
 

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