Jungle Chup Hai
Magar Uski Khaamoshi me
Hazaaron kate hue tano ki cheekhein dafn hai
The forest is silent
But in its silence
It carries the shrieks of a thousand tree trunks which have been cut down
– Lapata Jungle, Sudhir Dhawale
ON JUNE 11, 2026, the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (‘PUDR’) launched their most recent report on Operation Kagaar which was a compact set of security operations by both the central and the state governments between January 2024- March 2026. The foremost goal of the Operation Kagaar is synonymous with the meaning of the word itself which means to shrink something to a ‘brink’, or ‘verge’ with the operation acting as one of the most momentous blows of the government to obliterate the existence of ‘Naxalism’ or ‘Left wing extremism’ mainly in the states of Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
PUDR’s report focuses on seven districts in Bastar, Chhattisgarh. By taking into account the publicly reported killings, arrests and surrenders ensued by virtue of the Operation Kagaar, the report records the extent and magnitude of state accountability.
A crackdown on years of resistance
In February 2025, Home Minister Amit Shah declared that March 31, 2026 would be treated as a deadline for the complete eradication of naxalism from the country. This led to the development of a coordinated strategy involving a multitude of security agencies such as the National Investigation Agency, Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force, Sashastra Seema Bal. Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the forces operating in Chattisgarh. Operation Kagaar functioned as the government’s most strategically channelised blow to the entire Maoist Movement.
The age-old rift between Adivasi communities and the state stems from the time of the British colonial state’s move to dispossess the communities for securing the forest wealth which has continued even after India’s independence with various governments coming in and widening the scope for private corporations to extract forest wealth through its resources. Adivasi communities have been continuously deprived of their own land even as forest ecosystems and biodiversity they have relied on has faced extreme extraction. In the backdrop of systematic violation of rights of the Adivasi communities, political movements were ignited.
