In a giant stride towards Modi Government’s vision of building a Naxal-free Bharat, the number of districts most affected by Naxalism have been brought down to 3 from 6. Now only Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh are the most affected districts by Left Wing Extremism (LWE), ministry of home affairs said here on Wednesday.
Once called India’s “biggest internal security challenge” by the then Prime Minister in 2010, Naxalism is now visibly retreating. Naxals had planned a Red Corridor — stretching from Pashupati in Nepal to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
In 2013, 126 districts from different states reported Naxal-related violence; by March 2025, this tally had fallen to just 18 districts, with only 06 classified as ‘Most Affected Districts,’ it said.
In the category of LWE affected districts the number has also been further brought down to just 11 from 18. Now only 11 districts are Left Wing Extremism affected. The Modi Government is committed to completely eradicate the Naxal menace by March 31, 2026, it said.
The operational successes have surpassed all previous records this year wherein 312 LWE cadres have been eliminated, including CPI (Maoist) General Secretary and 08 other Polit Bureau/ Central Committee Members. 836 LWE cadres have been arrested and 1639 have surrendered and joined the mainstream. The surrendered Naxalites include one Polit Bureau Member and a Central Committee Member.
Under the Modi Government, unprecedented success has been achieved in combating the Naxal menace through rigorous implementation of National Action Plan and Policy which envisages a multi-pronged approach.
The National Action Plan and Policy include precise intelligence - based and people friendly counter Left Wing Extremism (LWE) operations.
These steps were accompanied by swift domination of areas with security vacuum, targeting of top leaders as well as over ground workers, countering the nefarious ideology, rapid development of infrastructure and saturation of welfare schemes, choking of finances, enhanced coordination between states and centre Governments and accelerated investigation and prosecution of Maoist related cases.
