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Journalism of Courage
Five months after Operation Black Forest, which saw thousands of central and state security troops mount an offensive against Naxals at Karregutta Hills in Bijapur near the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border, the Environment Ministry’s wildlife board panel has cleared the way to set up a jungle warfare college and battalion camping site by altering the boundaries of the Pamed Wildlife Sanctuary.
The standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (SC-NBWL) has recommended the proposal of the Chhattisgarh government to alter the sanctuary’s boundary. Around 3,485 hectares of the sanctuary will be handed over to the Bijapur forest division while receiving 3,535 hectares in return.
Chhattisgarh’s Chief Wildlife Warden had informed the SC-NBWL during its October 29 meeting that the proposal was essential from the internal security point of view as well as better administrative functioning and development measures.
The setting up of the college and camp inside this sanctuary is significant in light of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s repeated assertions that the Centre aims to root out Naxals by March 2026.
With Left Wing Extremism severely affecting areas within the sanctuary, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had requisitioned 700 acres of land adjacent to the Telangana border near Tadepalli for a jungle warfare college and a battalion camping site at Karregutta. Since these need to be established within the sanctuary area, an alteration of the boundary was proposed.
In its proposal, state authorities had underlined that the sanctuary area is geographically inaccessible due to Naxal activities, thereby hampering wildlife conservation and making it risky. The alteration or rationalisation of boundaries, it was submitted, would help biodiversity conservation, and the presence of security forces in Naxal-affected areas would help create a safer environment for local communities and the forest department.
The Pamed sanctuary was set up in 1983 with a focus on wild buffalo conservation. The Pamed sanctuary was set up in 1983 with a focus on wild buffalo conservation. Pamed has mixed forests with an abundance of sal and teak trees. It is also home to several species of wild animals, including the gaurs, and leopards.
The SC-NBWL cleared the sanctuary’s boundary alteration with certain conditions. It said the state forest department and security forces should institute a joint monitoring mechanism to ensure “security and parallel facilitation of wildlife conservation”.
It recommended inclusion of a module on biodiversity conservation in the training course of the jungle warfare school for security personnel, and added that non-operational movements of security forces should be avoided within the sanctuary. For conservation of wild water buffalos, the panel has sought a relocation and re-wildling programme and a long-term conservation programme dovetailing with state and central schemes.
Operation Black Forest
It was in April this year that the CRPF and its elite CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) commandos, along with the District Reserve Guard, Greyhounds, and Bastar Fighters, the special task force of the Chhattisgarh Police, launched Operation Black Forest in Karregutta hills against the top leadership of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
The operation was called off on May 11, and security forces killed 27 dreaded Naxals, including Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI-Maoist. The operation in Karregutta or Karreguttalu hills involved scaling a 700-metre thickly forested hill, to take on the CPI-M leadership and Battalion 1 of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army, The Indian Express had reported.
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