Raipur, March 31 More than four decades after the first "dalams" entered the forests of Dandakaranya, now Bastar, the armed Maoist rebellion in Chhattisgarh has effectively ended, as the region was declared free of Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) by the Centre on Tuesday, as per the deadline set.
In the 1980s, Maoists entered Bastar, intending to use it as a base or refuge amid increased pressure from the police in neighboring Andhra Pradesh.
What began as a small, ideologically driven movement more than 40 years ago evolved into an armed rebellion, which then entered a period of sustained decline that has significantly reshaped Chhattisgarh's security and governance landscape.
Experts say the trajectory of Naxalism in the region can be summarized in three phases: its gradual entry and expansion from the 1980s, the peak of insurgency between 2004 and 2014 following the formation of the CPI (Maoist), and the sustained decline witnessed over the past decade.
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