Mao presence in MP’s Kanha tiger reserve grows, police on alert

The presence of Maos has grown significantly in the Kanha tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh, including in its inviolate core, and in an effort to counter this, the state police has decided to set up three outposts in the core area and also sought deployment of four battalions of the Central Police Reserve force in the country’s oldest regulated forest.The reserve, which is on the Chhattisgarh-Madhya Pradesh border, has 110 tigers as per a 2010 estimation and also 80% of the country’s swamp deer population. It also has a Mao presence in four of its six zones, the officials confirmed. “We have regular movement of armed Maos in four core zones of KTR,” said SK Singh, the reserve’s field director.Indravati in Chhattisgarh and Palamu in Jharkhand are two other tiger reserves where the Maos have a significant presence.“Their (Mao) plan is to spread their area of influence to Amarkantak in Anuppur drict through the forest,” said a senior police officer, who is part of MP’s anti-Mao operations. Admitting presence of the insurgents in Kanha, Sameer Saurabh, superintendent of police, Balaghat, said, “Despite their presence, anti-Mao forces and local police are dominating the area. But, their influence is increasing and to keep them under check, setting up of outposts and getting additional battalions are important.”The Maos started entering Balaghat drict of MP about five years ago in a bid to expand their base from Chhattisgarh and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. In 2022, three dricts, Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori, were declared Mao affected. Police records show that in the past four years, seven Maos were killed in gunfights with police and one was arrested. Maos have killed three villagers and a forest contractual employee suspending them to be police informers. Sukhdev Parte, 25, an assant of Parsatola forest beat guard, was shot dead on March 23. Kanha’s saal-bamboo forest, with interspersed grassland provides Maos the perfect cover for their movement from one village to another. Unlike the hilly Satpura ranges, Kanha is easier to navigate on foot and is also very close to Kabir Dham and Mungeli dricts of Chhattisgarh, providing easy escape routes in case of anti-Mao operation, the senior police officer cited above added on condition of anonymity. Kanha is the oldest maintained forest in India, and retired forest official, Rakesh Shukla, describes it as one of India’s best forests . “The well-maintained forest is helping the Maos to run their operations,” he said.Kanha has negligible human presence in core area of about 940 sq km. Shukla said the peaceful environment and easy terrain become safe haven for Maos, said Shukla. A few months ago, union environment miner Bhupendra Yadav wrote to the state government seeking an action plan to deal with growing influence of Maos in Kanha. As a result, the forest department allowed home department to set outposts in buffer areas. “The core area has about 130 camps including 118 permanent patrolling camps of the forest department. In the camps, there are staff of two people– a guard and an assant guard. They are equipped with mobile phones and wireless sets. They can’t fight with Maos. When a group of armed men and women come to their camp to collect rations or other useful items, the guard has no option but to provide ration to them. Now, Maos are taking cooked food from them,” said JS Chauhan, principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife).He added that Maos often take away the wireless sets and mobile phones hampering conservation efforts. To ensure that this does not continue, the forest department has allowed the police to take charge inside the core areas.Balaghat superintendent of police Saurabh, said, “We find out that it was a planned strategy of Maos to terrorise the people of Malakhedi village near Mukki range to keep the villagers in their favour so we have decided to set up an outpost there.” “We are setting up an outpost between Khapa buffer zone and Mukki core zone. The outpost will have a trained staff of 60 personnel of hawk force and they can reach Malakhedi village in just 20 minutes to instill a feeling of security among villagers. Two more outposts will be set up soon near Supkhar and Bhainsagarh,” he added. Farid Shapu, Inspector General, anti-Mao operations said: “We are setting up outposts. We wrote to the Union minry of home in June 2021 to provide four CRPF battalion and we are hopefully getting two soon.” An RTI activ and environmental Ajay Dubey said, “In Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, the tiger reserves were destroyed because of Maos. Their modus operandi are same . First, they enter the forest and seek the support of forest officials to understand the area properly. Later, they create terror among people and stop guards from patrolling. Poachers and locals become active in the forest to end wildlife.” In MP, they have already taken the first step. Now, it is necessary to take serious steps otherwise we will lose Kanha Tiger Reserve too, warned Dubey.

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