Chhattisgarh

• 17 Feb 2025

CRPF’s New Operations Base in Chhattisgarh

Why in News? 

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has established a new operations base in the Maoist corridor in Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar region, strengthening its presence in core Left Wing Extremism-affected areas of the State.

Key Points

• About Forward Operating Base (FOB): 
  • The 196^th and 205^th Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), along with other paramilitary units, assisted in establishing the base. 
  • The FOB is in a remote, hilly region that houses Maoist training camps, weapons, ammunition dumps, and ration units. 
  • It lies within the stronghold of the Maoists from the south and west Bastar divisions. 
• Security Challenges and Resistance: 
  • The area serves as the operations centre of the first battalion of armed Maoist cadres. 
  • The CRPF demolished a tall red-colored memorial erected by Maoists in memory of their fallen cadres using a heavy earth-moving machine. 
• Government Strategy and Expansion: 
  • This base is the 13th in a series of new FOBs being created as part of the Union government’s goal to eliminate Left-Wing Extremism by March 2026. 
  • More FOBs are planned before the Maoists' annual Tactical Counter-Offensive Campaign (TCOC) begins. 
    • The TCOC is a summer offensive by Naxals, leveraging improved visibility in dry forests to launch attacks on security forces. 
• Anti-Naxal Operations in Chhattisgarh: 
  • Over the past three to four years, the CRPF has established more than 40 FOBs in Chhattisgarh. 
  • The most intense anti-Naxal operations are concentrated in southern Bastar, bordering Odisha and Telangana. 

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) 

• The CRPF was initially established as the Crown Representatives Police in 1939 in response to political turmoil and unrest within the princely states. 
• The force was renamed the Central Reserve Police Force in 1949. 
• Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, the then Home Minister, envisioned a multifaceted role for the CRPF, aligning its functions with the evolving needs of a newly independent nation. 
• COBRA:  
  • It is a special operation unit of the Central Reserve Police Force of India proficient in guerrilla tactics and jungle warfare. Originally established to counter the Naxalite movement. 
  • CoBRA is deployed to address insurgent groups engaging in asymmetrical warfare.