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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/07/01/stories/2008070157010300.htm)
Other States
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Orissa
Chitrakonda turned into a naxal fortress
Satyasundar Barik
Inhospitable terrain makes it a fertile ground for their activities
The area has a water route on three sides and mountainous terrain on the otherAccording to NGOs, naxal informers keep track of movements of outsiders in the area
The memorial put up by naxalites at Janbai ghat.
BHUBANESWAR: A 68-km-long difficult water route covering three sides and mountainous terrain from the other side will surely encourage any Bollywood director to choose the locale as a perfect base for a villain character.
But in real life, left wing extremists seem to have developed this cut-off region in Malkangiri district into their fortress over a period of nearly two decades. Perhaps the elite Greyhound personnel miscalculated the strength of the extremists while passing through the Balimela reservoir on Sunday.
Sample these figures. Between 1990 and 2006, Orissa witnessed 278 cases of naxal violence. Of these, 119 naxalite-related incidents took place in Malkanagiri.
Ironically, 97 naxalite attacks were alone detected under Kalimela and Chitrakonda police stations that mark the fringe area of the cut-off region.
Extremists began their operation in 1990 by committing a dacoity at a godown of the Orissa Forest Development Corporation at MV-9 under the Kalimela police station. They also killed a police employee, Padma Charan Majhi, of Rodanpalli village under the same police station in 1991.
Kalimela is 30 km away from Chitrakonda, which is gateway to the cut-off region that houses about 16,000 people, mostly primitive tribe, living in 151 hamlets. There are only two motorboats available for these people to see the outside world.
According to a preliminary socio-economic survey of the region, 70 per cent of villagers consume their staple food once a day.
The acute poverty prevailing in the area and inhospitable terrain bordering Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh presented these left-wing extremists a fertile ground to strengthen their base and create hundreds of sympathizers.
The present remoteness for these villagers is man-made. Way back in 1962, to facilitate Balimela Hydroelectricity Project, huge patches of forest land and villages of these tribals were submerged by Sileru water. For next 10 years, they remained cut off from the outside world. In 1972, the State Government provided two motorboats, which now ferry villagers on the 68 km of water path in 12 hours.
According to a study, more than 600 hills along with huge forest patches have been submerged by the water route. The tree stumps are in thousands. An unseen tree stump could rake the boat’s bottom badly, or even topple it. Left wing extremists know the ground reality well. They targeted the steamer full of Greyhound personnel as it could not move freely under these circumstances.
As per NGO activists, who had been frequently entering the area, informers will surely pass on the messages about any unknown person stepping in the region to naxalite leaders.
Construction of a proposed river bridge that could connect a large land mass of the cutoff region with outside world is yet to begin.
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