The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : Forests provide easy route to naxals

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Monday, Feb 18, 2008
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Forests provide easy route to naxals

Sib Kumar Das

Chandaka elephant sanctuary provides clue to it

Forest officials fail to keep strict watch of miscreants inside jungles
Security planners must learn from movements of wild animals

- PTI Photo

tribute in sand: Students of sand artist Sudarsan Patnaik paying tributes to the police officers, killed in naxal attack in Nayagarh by making sculptures at Puri beach on Saturday.

BERHAMPUR: The interlinked forests of Orissa provide easy route to naxals to reach coastal districts and even Bhubaneswar, the State capital.

The stray elephants of Chandaka elephant sanctuary provide clue to it. Herds of stray elephants from the Chandaka elephant sanctuary have easily reached far off areas of Baliguda forest division in Kandhamal district and areas of Ganjam district under Berhampur forest division. The forests near Kotagarh under the Baliguda forest division was always suspected of having naxal presence. The Gasama jungles where the Maoists are hiding after their attacks in Nayagarh, extend in Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal districts. Maoists involved in recent attack also used these interlinked forests for their movements.

The Chandaka sanctuary on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar is near Dampada forest near Banki, Barunei forest near Khurda and demarcated forests of Begunia and Ranapur. The Barunei forest is linked by demarcated forests of Tangi and Rameswar with the dense Barbara jungle and Dhuanali jungle in Ganjam district. The Barbara jungle is again connected to Singhasani and Buguda forests under Ghumusara south forest division. These forests are connected to Dasapalla jungle in Nayagarh district, forests of Baliguda forest division, Khasama and Tarasingh jungles near Bhanjanagar. After their attack the naxals had tried to use this jungle as their escape route because it could provide them route to naxal infested remote areas of Gajapati and Rayagada districts.

These interlinked jungles and the pathways through them provide safe route for wild elephants and timber mafia. Now this route is being used by the naxals. With their activities in the Nayagarh district they are trying to create a major route through the jungles to connect Maoists in south Orissa with their counterparts in Central and Western Orissa. It may be noted that Athamallik forest division in Dhenkanal district adjacent to the Chandaka wild life division near Bhubaneswar has also grown into a naxal den.

Due to lack of staff and weaponry, the forest officials usually fail to keep strict watch on possible movement of miscreants inside jungles.

The naxals seem to be learning from the movement of wild elephants through the inter-linked forests of the State.

It is high time for the security planners to study the movements of wild animals through interlinked forests and increase security around them to stop possibility of naxals reaching Bhubaneswar via Chandaka forest, said a senior forest official.

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