2025 marks a rare moment in India’s internal security history, when the State confronted violence not at its edges, but at its roots. For the first time in decades, India fought its most persistent internal threat: dismantling the armed insurgency of Left-Wing Extremism.
After decades in which Left-Wing Extremism drained state capacity, endangered lives, and stalled development in vulnerable regions, India demonstrated that sustained political resolve and institutional coordination could yield lasting results.
In 2025, India moved beyond episodic action to a comprehensive internal security approach: precision operations against armed Maoists, and simultaneous expansion of governance, infrastructure and rehabilitation in long-neglected areas. The outcome was unmistakable; shrinking insurgent footprints, collapsing extremist leadership structures and large-scale surrenders.
Breaking the Backbone of Naxalism
As 2025 draws to a close, the Modi Government’s declaration remains central: India will be completely Naxal-free by March 31, 2026. With just over three months remaining, and with the organizational structure of the CPI(Maoist) substantially dismantled, the target appears within reach.
In 2013, 182 districts were affected by LWE, now in 2025 the number of LWE affected districts brought down to just 11. 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.
Neutralisation Operations and Major Encounters
In 2025 alone, security forces neutralised 335 Naxals and facilitated over 2167 surrenders and made 942 arrests. In Operation Black Forest, 27 hardcore naxals were neutralised. On 24, May 2025, 24 hardcore naxals surrendered in Bijapur.
In November 2025, in an encounter between forces and naxals in the Maredumilli forest area of Alluri Sitarama Raju district in Andhra Pradesh, 6 maoists were killed. Among the dead were senior Maoist leader and Central Committee member Madvi Hidma, his wife Raje, and several close followers. He was involved in the 2010 Dantewada attack, the 2013 Jhiram Valley massacre and the 2021 Sukma-Bijapur encounter.
A major breakthrough came in September 2025 in the Abujhmad region along the Maharashtra–Chhattisgarh border, where forces eliminated senior Central Committee leaders Katta Ramachandra Reddy and Kadri Satyanarayan Reddy.
In May, 2025, in an operation in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, security forces have neutralized 27 dreaded Maoists, including Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI-Maoist, topmost leader, and the backbone of the Naxal movement.
High-Value Surrenders and Collapse of Leadership
Recently in December 2025, in a major breakthrough, 10 Maoists of the Kanha–Bhoramdeo (KB) division, including most-wanted commander Surendar alias Kabir, who carries a Rs 77-lakh bounty, surrendered before security forces in Balaghat. Senior Maoist leader Vikas Nagpure, alias Navjyot, alias Anant, had surrendered last month in November and made a public appeal to lay down arms.
Also in November 2025, in Chhattisgarh, 15 active cadres of outlawed CPI (Maoists), carrying a combined bounty of nearly 50 lakh rupees, laid down arms in Sukma district. Among them were four hardcore members of the dreaded People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army Battalion No. 1 – PPCM Madvi Sanna, Sodi Hidme, Suryam alias Ravva Soma and Meena alias Madvi Bheeme, each carrying a reward of eight lakh rupees.
Between October 14 and 17, 2025, a total of 258 Naxalites surrendered across Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, including 170 in Chhattisgarh’s Abujhmad–North Bastar region and 61 in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli. Among them were several senior cadres and area commanders, carrying major bounties on their heads. The surrender list includes 10 senior Maoist operatives, among them:
• Satish alias T. Vasudeo Rao (Central Committee Member), notably, T. Vasudeo Rao carried a reward of Rs 1 crore, underscoring the strategic significance of this surrender wave.
• Ranita (South Zonal Committee Member and Secretary, Maad DVC),
• Bhaskar (DVC Member, PL 32),
• Nila alias Nande (DVC Member, In-Charge and Secretary, Nelnar Area Committee)
• Deepak Palo (DVC Member, In-Charge and Secretary, Indravati Area Committee)
In September 2025, Senior Maoist leader Sujatha surrendered after 43 years underground. In April 2025, Badesatti village in Sukma district was declared the first Gram Panchayat in the Bastar division to be completely Naxal-free.
Fruits of Development Finally Reaching the People
After intense action against naxals, the fruits of development are finally reaching the people. For instance, in May 2025, 17 remote villages in Chhattisgarh’s Naxal-affected Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district received grid electricity for the first time since independence, benefiting 540 families.
Also in May 2025 Katejhari, a naxal affected tribal village in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra gets the bus transport facility for the first time since independence and the village residents celebrate the arrival of the bus. In Bihar’s Jamui district, the small village of Chormara voted peacefully for the first time in 25 years in the Bihar 2025 Assembly Elections.
The Modi government has won a victory that generations will remember. For nearly four decades, Bastar lived under the shadow of naxalism. Today in 2025, it is transforming. Bastar’s return to normalcy and development has led to the establishment of a branch of the Indian Overseas Bank in Jagargunda, a remote and historically volatile region that has faced decades of insurgency.
In Bastar over 300 km of roads are being built, deserted markets are thriving again, and schools once shut by extremists have reopened, with more than 50 primary schools revived and 7 new ones established in Sukma alone.
Rehabilitation formed a crucial pillar of this success. In November 2025, Chhattisgarh government inaugurated a unique ‘Pandum Cafe’ at the divisional headquarters in Jagdalpur in the Bastar region to provide employment opportunities to former Maoists who have surrendered. The Café is run by former naxals.
In December 2025, a mobile tower has been installed for the first time since independence at Kondapalli village in Chhattisgarh’s Naxal-affected Bijapur district, an area long cut off from the outside world.
Conclusion
The gains achieved in 2025 against Naxalism represent far more than a series of security or law-enforcement successes. The neutralisation of armed cadres, the dismantling of leadership networks, and the large-scale surrenders are not merely operational statistics; they signify the systematic erosion of an insurgent ecosystem that had sustained violence for decades. 2025 will be remembered as the year India decisively turned the page on one of its most enduring internal security challenges, making concrete and irreversible progress toward the vision of a Naxal-Mukt Bharat. |
