In 18 months, Chhattisgarh’s DRG, a special force, has dealt crippling blows to Maoists, killing top leaders and reclaiming strongholds once deemed impenetrable.
Image Source: Getty Images
The past 18 months have marked a major turning point in India’s fight against the prolonged Maoist insurgency. Between these months, security forces have delivered body blows to the Maoist organisation, where they have eliminated hundreds of their fighters, including several top leaders and have arrested an equal number. How the security forces in Chhattisgarh eliminated Basavaraju—the powerful General Secretary of Communist Party of India (Maoist) in Bastar—is a telling example of a massive turnaround in counterinsurgency against the Maoists. In this mission, Chhattisgarh has played a crucial role. Behind Chhattisgarh’s inspiring turnaround story is a less discussed special force: the District Reserve Guard (DRG).
As a specialised force to counter the growing Maoist menace in the state, the DRG was conceptualised in the aftermath of the state’s failed Salwa Judum (a militia consisting of tribal youth to fight against the Maoists) in the late 2000s, when the Supreme Court declared it illegal. Partly, DRG was conceptualised in 2011 to not only address the fallouts of the judgment, which raised question marks about the future of hundreds of Special Police Officers (mainly surrendered Maoists and adivasi youth) and also to create a counterinsurgency outfit driven by the local adivasis. Thus, the personnel of DRG are primarily surrendered Maoists and tribal youth to counter the Maoist ideology and propaganda. Furthermore, the Chhattisgarh government also believed that the security forces—along with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and other security forces—lacked on-the-ground familiarity with the terrain and forests, which the establishment of the DRG would help address. The state government realised that “former Maoists are better at navigating dense jungle terrains and know about the Maoist hideouts” and would therefore be better at combating insurgency.
Behind Chhattisgarh’s inspiring turnaround story is a less discussed special force: the District Reserve Guard (DRG).
The result was the formation of the DRG, with its first unit established in Kanker and Narayanpur districts, including Abujhmarh. Seeing the usefulness of the force, the state government expanded DRG’s operations to the Bijapur and Bastar Districts in 2013, followed by Sukhma and Kondagaon districts in 2014, and finally Dantewada in 2015. By 2025, the strength of DRG personnel exceeded 5,000.
Several personnel were inducted into the DRG police force between 2020 and 2022, with a majority of them being former Maoists. The recruitment process for the DRG takes place at three levels: assistant constables who are mostly special police officers (SPOs) who were former Salwa Judum members; constables who are formally recruited, and former Maoists who have surrendered and are recruited as ‘Gopniya Sainiks’. DRG’s core philosophy revolves around the basic principles of Mati (soil), Gati (speed), and minimum damage. Mati signifies that the operations are intelligence-based, concerning terrains and dense forests. Focussing on Gati (speed), DRG personnel possess indomitable endurance and pace capable of tracking 30-35 kilometres overnight. Thirdly, the DRG recruits are trained in a way that minimises damage to its personnel. After the recruitment process, DRG cadets undergo a year-long training programme at the State police academy. Furthermore, after completing the training, they are sent for a two-month course in Jungle warfare in various training facilities, especially the one in Kanker Jungle Warfare College.
Since the DRG acts as a special counter-insurgency force, it receives specialised training in jungle warfare, anti-guerilla tactics, body trap detection, and terrain-based anti-ambush strategy. Given that most of the DRG jawans are former Maoists themselves, they are well aware of the movements of the extremists, which gives them an advantage in tracking Maoists' movements and operations. The DRG personnel are known for mapping out the seasonal movements of rebel hideouts in the forests. They anticipate these shifts and, with assistance from local villagers, they monitor the logistical support received by the Maoists. In summary, over the past decade, the DRG has evolved into a formidable force against the Maoists.
Some of the major security operations led by DRG (in coordination with other forces) in the past 18 months are elucidated below:
16 April 2024
In a major security operation, DRG eliminated 29 Maoists on 16 April 2024. Several of them were dreaded Maoists carrying hefty rewards in their names. In this operation, the security forces. Leading the operation, DRG exemplified the use of tip-off tactical deployment, allowing troops to target Maoist cadres in strongholds proactively.
30 April 2024
In another fortnight, DRG demonstrated again its superior counterinsurgency skills and lethality when it killed 10 more Maoists area near Abujhmadh. An intelligence-driven operation led by DRG saw the elimination of some of the top Maoist guerrillas, apart from a heavy recovery of arms and explosives.
10 May 2024
In little over a week, on 10 May 2024, DRG delivered another major blow to the Communist Party of India (CPI)-Maoist organisation when its jawans eliminated 12 rebels in Bijapur. A joint operation led by DRG, along with the Special Task Force and CoBRA unit, completely outmanoeuvred the Maoist team in the thick forests around Bijapur.
3 September 2024
After a few months (3 September 2024), DRG, along with Bastar Fighters and CoBRA, launched a successful counter-operation on Maoists around the intersection of Dantewada and Bijapur districts, killing nine of the rebels.
04 October 2024
In one of the largest anti-Maoist drives, as many as 38 rebels were eliminated during a fierce encounter in the Bastar region on 4 October 2024. Among the diseased Maoists was Urmila, a powerful woman member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC). This marked the highest number of fatalities suffered by the Maoists in a single day.
16 January 2025
The 2025 opened with a major security operation led by the DRG eliminated 18 Maoist rebels in the thick forests of South Bastar on 16 January. Considering the DRG achieved this success against Battalion No. 01 of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army, the strongest military formation of the CPI-Maoist, this further exposed the vulnerability of Maoists.
21 January 2025
DRG near the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border when they silenced 14 Maoists. Among the diseased Maoists was Chalpati, a member of the Central Committee, the highest decision-making body of the CPI-Maoist.
20 March 2025
Following its series of successes in January, DRG launched another major encounter on 20 March, where it eliminated 31 rebels near the Mehda-Fasegadh border of Chhattisgarh. Yet again, DRG’s tactical approach, combined with rapid deployment across inter-district zones and jungle warfare skills, paid rich dividends.
However, DRG demonstrated its rising operational prowess more vividly in recent months during the 21-day-long security operation code-named Operation Black Forest. Held between 21 April 2025 and 11 May 2025, the operation, which was launched to reclaim the Karregutta Hills range straddling Telangana and Chhattisgarh, resulted in the elimination of top-level Maoist leaders, whereby 27 dreaded Maoists have been neutralised, including Basavajau (after a 50-hour fight in dense forest), the general secretary of the CPI-Maoist. The DRG played an effective role in leading the operations, which not only resulted in the elimination of over two dozen but also 54 arrests and 84 surrenders.
Table: Major Security Operations executed by DRG (Jan 2024-June 2025)
In conclusion, the formation of DRG, which raised both legal (in the background of banned Salwa Judum) and operational doubts, has emerged as a decisive special force in Chhattisgarh’s battle against Maoist insurgency. A state which was in serious trouble due to Maoist stranglehold over a vast tract of its territory a decade ago has been able to achieve a complete turnaround, largely driven by the phenomenal successes of DRG. Retaking Karregutta Hills and breaching Maoist fortresses such as Abujmadh, apart from eliminating hundreds of rebels, including some of the top leaders in the past 18 months, signal Chhattisgarh’s massive recovery. Of course, DRG’s security successes have been greatly aided by other outfits such as the CRPF’s CoBRA, STF, among others.
As the Maoist insurgency in India and Chhattisgarh appears to be reaching a cessation, the time is ripe to think about the future of DRG jawans in the post-conflict period.
Finally, it should not be forgotten that DRG, too, has suffered casualties (albeit on smaller scales) on several occasions. Yet, given it is a special force (unlike other special forces such as Greyhounds of Telangana, C-60 Commandos of Maharashtra, Special Task Force of Odisha that are largely drawn from state police), largely drawn from surrendered Maoists, the operation's successes despite considerable limitations need to be highlighted. Further, learning from the controversial Salwa Judum experiment (where the tribal militia was put one against the other, leading to large-scale killings and human rights issues), the state has ensured that DRG does not take that path again. While DRG is still accused of orchestrating fake encounters, it is still nowhere at a scale like Salwa Judum. Finally, as the Maoist insurgency in India and Chhattisgarh appears to be reaching a cessation, the time is ripe to think about the future of DRG jawans in the post-conflict period. Given they are not regular police force, how would these personnel be rehabilitated is a question to ponder.
Niranjan Sahoo is a Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation
Avinnea Ghosal is a Research Intern at the Observer Research Foundation
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Niranjan Sahoo, PhD, is a Senior Fellow with ORF’s Governance and Politics Initiative. With years of expertise in governance and public policy, he now anchors ...
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Avinnea Ghosal is a Research Intern at the Observer Research Foundation ...
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