LIST OF POLICE KILLINGS IN DANDAKARANYA (From 10 Aug 2009) IN OPERATION GREEN HUNT

(Updated on June 1, 2011. Yet, it’s incomplete as we are still unable to record every incident of killing taking place almost on a daily basis. Some incidents of killings have completely gone unreported. Some people were abducted and their whereabouts were not revealed till now by police.)

SO, OUR STRAIGHT QUESTION IS WHY THIS HUE AND CRY OVER KILLINGS OF POLICE, SPO AND PARAMILITARY FORCES, WHO ACTUALLY ARE THE MERCILESS KILLERS OF INNOCENT ADIVASI PEOPLE?

AND WHY NOT ‘NO TEARS’ ON THESE LIVES LOST (GIVEN BELOW)?

DO ASK THE RULERS OF OUR COUNTRY WHO RECITE ‘DEMOCRACY’ AND ‘CONSTITUTION’ ON EVERY BREATH…

WHO HAD KILLED THESE PEOPLE AND WHY?

POLICE KILLINGS IN DANDAKARANYA (From 10 Aug 2009) IN OPERATION GREEN HUNT
Date	No. of People Killed	Name	Sex/Age	Native Village	Site of killing	Block/ District	How were they killed?
10-Aug-09	6	Oyam Sagar	M/30	Vecham	Between Oukyam and Vecham villages	Bijapur	All were caught and shot dead. Out of them the only girl Somli was our unarmed comrade. Rest were innocent peasants
		Emla Pandru	M/25	Choukanpal
		Hapka Lingu	M/25	“
		Tati Lakmu	M/25	Etepadu
		Tati Aitu	M/45	“
		Karam Somli	F/16	Timmenar
13-Aug-09	2	Madkam Sannu	M/45	Keshmundi		Bhairamgarh/Bijapur	Killed in fake encounter
		Podiyam Somdu	M/30	“
7-Sep-09	1	Kunjam Bhima	M	Duvvalkarka	Duvvalkarka	Dantewada	caught and shot dead
7-Sep-09	1	Madkam Raju	M/20	Timmenar		Bijapur	caught and shot dead
8-Sep-09	4	Sodi Sona	M/55	Gollagudem	Gollagudem	Dantewada	caught and shot dead but encounter not declared
		Sodi Bheemal	M/45
		Sodi Aite	F/25
		Madivi Deval	M/50
13-Sep-09	1	Kavasi Sukram	M/25	Keskuttul		Bijapur	caught and shot dead
17-Sep-09	1	Madivi Deval	M/30	Singanmadugu	Singanmadugu	Dantewada	caught and killed in cold blood and not declared
17-Sep-09	5	Dudi Muye	F/70	Gachampally	Gachanpally	Dantewada	caught and killed in cold blood and not declared
		Madivi Adamal	M/45
		Madakam Chulal	M/45
		Madivi Jogal	M/60
		Madivi Gangal	M/70				beaten unto death and not declared
17-Sep-09	5	Paddem Deval	M/25	Gattampadu	Between Nallabelly and Gollapally villages	Dantewada	caught and killed in cold blood
		Dudi Pojjal	M/15
		Sodi Masal	M/20
		Tuniki Sinnal	M/35	Palachelima
		Sodi Shanesh	M/43
17-Sep-09	1	Dudi Adamal	M/35		Paidagudem
26-Sep-09	3	Kalmu Gangi	F/50	Poojarikanker	Between Poojarikanker and Gunjur villages	Bijapur	caught separately when they were working in fields and shot dead
			M/	Gunjur
			M/	“
22-Sep-09	2	Sukhram Koudo	M	Kosronda	Kosronda	Kanker	SPOs killed these persons and thrown away their deadbodies in same village Kosronda. They put a poster to paint it as a Maoist killing
		Lachhan Dhurwa	M
1-Oct-09	12	Madivi Bajaru	M/40	Gompad	Gompad	Dantewada	Killed in indiscriminate firing and not declared
		Soyam Subba	M/35
		Madivi Yenka	M/50
		Soyam Subba	M/20
		Soyam Jogi	F/18
		Kartam Kanni	F/23
		Madivi Mutti	F/10
		Madivi Deval	M/35	Gopalpuram (AP)
		Kartam Mutta	M/40	Chintaguppa
		Musaki Deva	M/	Kunadabba
		Kunjam Arly	M/17	Velpocha
		Musaki Muka	M/32	Nulkatongu
1-Oct-09	1	Muchaki Handa	M/40	Dabba		Dantewada	caught and shot dead
7-Oct-09	1	Madakam Raju	M/20	Timmenar	Kamulur	Bijapur	This student activist was caught and shot dead
13-Oct-09	1	Podiyam Somdu	M/45	Kutul lakka	Kutul lakka	Bijapur	caught and shot dead
17-Oct-09	2	Kovasi Sukram	M/45	Kankagudem	Kankagudem	Bijapur	caught and shot dead
		Madkam Sannu	M/45
23-Oct-09	1	Shyambatti @ Batti	F/20	Gattakal	Anjreli	Narayanpur	Caught in Padangal village and taken to Narayanpur. Police tortured and killed in cold blood. Her body thrown away in Anjrelli village and declared as encounter
24-Oct-09	1	Madivi Ungal	M/20	Gundam	Pusubaka	Bijapur	caught and shot dead
24-Oct-09	2	Sodi Gangi	F/40	Pujarikanker	Pujarikanker	Bijapur	raped and killed
24-Oct-09	2	Musaki Kosa	M/25	Gunjur	Gunjur	Bijapur	caught and shot dead
		Sodi Unga	M/22
8-Nov-09	1	Gandam Sukram	M/38	Nangalgudem		Dantewada	Killed and declared as road accident
8-Nov-09	2	Dirdo Madka	M/60	Kachlaram	Kachlaram	Bhopalpatnam/Bijapur	indiscriminately fired and killed
		Kovasi Suklu	M/65
10-Nov-09	7	Madkam Hunga	M/45	Tettemadugu	Killed at two different places	Konta/Dantewada	caught and shot dead
		Madkam Hidma	M/30	“
		Dudhi Rajal	M/50	“
		Kartam Aital	M/30	Doragudem
		Madkam Badral	M/25	Dokpad
		Vendo Mangdu	M/27	“
		Madivi Jogal	M/35	Palodi
15-Nov-09	1	Mansu Dhurwa	M/14	Markanar	Near Koelibeda	Kanker	7th Class student of Koelibeda High School. Killed in cold blood and declared as an encounter
20-Nov-09	1	Madkam Deva	M/40	Burgum		Kuvakonda/Dantewada	Killed in fake encounter
24-Nov-09	2	Madivi Baman	M/11	Pangodi	Pangodi	Usur/Bijapur	These persons were father and son who were caught and shot dead
		Madivi Sadhu	M/11
27-Nov-09	1	Madkam Mangu	M/25	Hiroli		Kuvakonda/Dantewada	“
3-Dec-09	1	Madivi Budhram	M	Korinjed	Kachlaram	Bhopalpatnam/Bijapur	caught and shot dead
11-Dec-09	7	Kunjam Hurra	M/18	Gumiyapal	Sammeli	Kuvakonda/Dantewada	caught when they were asleep and taken away to Kirandul. Next day shot dead at a nearby village
		Madivi Joga	M/25
		Barse Somdu	M/30
		Midiyam Bhuma	M/35
		Midiyam Sukka	M/17
		Madivi Gutta	M/40
		Tati Hidma	M/25	Aranpur
11-Dec-09	1	Sitaram Korram	M/	Toter	Toter	Narayanpur	dragged from his house and tortured and shot dead then declared him as deputy commander of the local squad
15-Dec-09	2	Veko Sombaru	M/30	Kotrapal	Kotrapal	Bhairamgarh/Bijapur	caught and shot dead
		Madivi Motli	F/25
21-Dec-09	3	Suklu Mandavi	M	Odsapara		Bijapur	A 150-member killer gang of SPOs and Police came from Bangapal and Kosoli Camps and picked these people from their villages and shot them dead
		Lachhu Poyam	M	Karkaveda
		Kosa Mandavi	M
30-Dec-09	2	Punem Pandru	M/45	Vechapal	Vechapal	Bijapur	These persons were father and son who were caught and shot dead
		Punem Motu	M/20
7-Jan-10	1	Korsa Munna	M/18	Mankeli	Mankeli	Bijapur	Caught and killed
9-Jan-10	4	Madivi Bandi	F/34	Surpangudem	Near Chintalnar	Konta/Dantewada	caught and shot dead
		Kalmu Paiki	F/25
		Midiyam Gujja	M/18
		Ursa Unga	M/20	Durvondarbha
11-Jan-10	3	Hapka Sombaru	M/17	Kotrapal	Kotrapal	Bhairamgarh/Bijapur	Caught and killed
		Emla Sukku	M/35
		Boggami Raju	M/20
12-Jan-10	1	Madkam Joga	M/22	Kottagudem	Rangaiguda	Konta/Dantewada	caught and shot dead
15-Jan-10	2	Madkam Handa	M/25	Rangaiguda
		Podiyam Raju	M/20	Permapara
17-Jan-10	1	Kalmu Chamru	M/35	Kaika	Kaika	Bijapur	Caught and shot dead
20-Jan-10	2	Mahesh Dhurwa	M/25	Kakbaras	Near Antagarh	Kanker	Police arrested these persons in Eekdand village on Jan 20 and killed after torturing them for sevaral days. Their dead bodies were found near a river on Jan 31 and a story concocted that unknown persons were killed.
		Karthik Usendi	M/25	Kotul
23-Jan-10	4	Kunjam Motu	M/24	Kutrem	Between Kutrem and Kakadi hills	Kuvakonda/Dantewada	All of these innocent people were caught and killed.
		Kunjam Bhima	M/25	Porokakad
		Kunjam Hurra	M/20	Sammeli
		Kadti Bhima	M/25
26-Jan-10	1	Nadugu Nureti	M/40	Kosronda		Raoghat/Kanker	picked up from his house and put an olive green uniform on him and killed in cold blood and then declared as encounter
29-Jan-10	1	Sudhakar Korram	M/22		Remawand village	Narayanpur	He was an unarmed member of our organization who was killed in indiscriminate firing and declared as encounter death
2-Feb-10	2	Emla Mangu	M/27	Paralnar	Paralnar	Gangalur/Bijapur	Caught and shotdead; Emla Mangu was PLGA member, while Lakshmi was village girl
		Badse Lakshmi	F/20
3-Feb-10	7	Rama Kalmami	M/22	Takilod	Takilod	Bijapur	Police and SPOs team attacked village Takilod caught 14 people and selectevely Killed these 7 in most inhuman way
		Asharam Emla	M/25
		Jayram Emla	M/30
		Anantram Veko	M/30
		Motu Barsa	M/35
		Raju Murami	M/20
		Anatram Kalmami	M/2
3-Feb-10	1	Korsa Lakmu	M/40	Regadgatta	Cherpal	Bijapur/Bijapur	Caught and shot dead by joint forces
7-Feb-10	5	Santu Potai	M/25	Matala	Ongnar	Narayanpur	All of these were caught  and killed in cold blood
		Phoolo Vadde	F/22	Ongnar
		Kade Potai	M/20	Addempad
		Ramoli Vadde	F/22	Onapad
		Dalsai Korram	M/22	Mandoki
9-Feb-10	1	Punem Ungal	M/30	Pottenar	Pottenar	Bhairamgarh/Bijapur	caught and shot dead
12-Feb-10	1	Kumili	F/22	Paiveru	Dumnar	Narayanpur	She was working in a farm run by Janatana Sarkar. SPOs and Informers caught her. They gangraped her and brutally beheaded
17-Feb-10	1	Kursam Pandru	M/20	Gornam	Gornam	Bijapur	caught and killed
2-Apr-10	1	Soma Kadiyami	M/40	Kandadi	Near Kesekodi	Kanker	Taken away from village and shot him dead in cold blood
4-May-10	2	Lalsingh	M/22	Nariya	Rajubeda	Narayanpur	Sourrounded the local youth shot from point-blank
		Sukhlal	M/20	Bailapad
16-May-10	2	Vanjami Malla	M/18	Gumiyapal	Gumiyapal	Kirandul/Dantewada	Shot dead and declared as encounter
		Kunjami Aitu	M/23	Kutrem
19-May-10	1	Midiyam Bandi	M/27	Etem	Etem	Gadiras/Dantewada	Caught and shot dead
2-Jun-10	1	Sukhda Achla	M	Silparas Mettatola	Vala	Kanker	killed in indiscriminate firing on village youth
3-Jun-10	1	Maddal	M/14	Angmetta	Angmetta	Bijapur	Caught by SPOs while he was alone and stabbed to death
20-Jun-10	2	Deve	F/25	Indravati Area	Kohkametta	Narayanpur	Both were killed in indiscriminate firing by Police while they were cooking food for guerillas in village. Deve was a PLGA fighter, while Shivcharan was an unarmed villager.
		Shivcharan	M/23	Muhandi
7-Jul-10	1	Oyam Mangu	M/19	Tarrem	Nakulnar	Kuvakonda/Dantewada	This PLGA fighter was killed in fierce fighting during PLGA raid on notorious Awadhesh Goutam’s house
24-Jul-10	1	Jagesh Koudo	M/	Gummer	Gummer	Raoghat/Kanker	no details
4-Aug-10	1	Kunjami Joga	M/23	Kutrem	Kutrem	Kirandul/Dantewada	Koya Commandos etc raided the village and shot dead while he was stepping out of his house.
11-Aug-10	3	Madkam Hidma	M/21	Rangaiguda	Rangaiguda	Konta/Dantewada	Killed in fake encounter by Koya Commandos
		Veko Bojja	M/33
		Bhima	M/25
17-Aug-10	1	Chaite	M/28	Enhur_NBT	Usebeda	Orchha/Narayanpur	SPOs with the help of some local informers caught this ACM level comrade while she was alone near a camp and killed in cold blood after gangrape.
9-Sep-10	1	Veko Kotlu	M/35	Kotrapal	Kotrapal	Bhairamgarh/Bijapur	Killed in a fake encounter
21-Sep-10	2	Vetti Hadma	M/22	Gommugudem	Usoor	Usoor/Bijapur	Both were killed in a real encouter
		Oyam Budral	M/20
8-Oct-10	6	Names unknown		Sawargaon	Sawargaon	Dhanora/Gadchiroli	All of these were innocent villagers and school children, who were killed in indiscriminate mortar shelling by ITBP merceneries belonging to Kohka basecamp in Rajnandgaon district of CG, fired mortar shells who had gone mad after they were ambushed by PLGA in which 3 of their jawans were killed
9-Oct-10	8	Kosa @ Aitu	M/30	WBT	Padkipali	Sankara/Mahasamund	Out of 8 persons killed, only 6 were PLGA guerillas, laid down their lives while fighting with the enemy forces inflicting injuries to two STF personnel, whereas Goutam Patel and a labourer at his house were unarmed and innocent villagers who were dragged out of their house and shot dead in cold blood. Thus, it was partially real encounter.
		Anita @ Natasha	F/25	Gattakal/NBT
		Arjun @ Chandu	M/24	Pollevaya-IV area
		Parvati	F/21	NBT
		Rajbati	F/20	NBT
		Lachhu	M/19	Usebeda-Maad
		Goutam Patel	M/?	Padkipali
		One labour	M/?	Padkipali
13-Oct-10	2	Madivi Masa	M/21	Gornam	Gornam	Bijapur	Caught and shot dead and declared as encounter
		Sodhi Baman	M/25
15-Oct-10	2	Joga Kowasi @ Nagesh	M/36	Palodi-SBT	Bhilai	Durg	Both were were caught from Bhilai suburban area and shot dead and declared it as encounter
		Prameela Mandavi	F/22	Pulunj-NBT
19-Oct-10	2	Kursam Kistaiah	M/24	Kottapally	Kottapally	Madded/Bijapur	Shot dead and declared as encounter and one young woman Kursam sangeeta (24) was arrected
		Kursam Nagesh	M/23
21-Oct-10	2	Oyam Mangu	M/25	Burigil	Burigil	Gangalur/Bijapur	Killed when police fired indiscriminately on villagers
		Oyam Manku	M/17
22-Oct-10	1	Unknown	M/		Kolar	Kanker	Police claimed this killing, has to be confirmed
25-Oct-10	1	Sannau Nuroti	M/30	Nibra	Madapa forest between Tadoki and Raoghat	Antagarh/Kanker	Caught from his house and next day killed in a fake encounter and declared him a platoon commander
23-Nov-10	9	Emla Phagu	M/21	Silinger	Jegurugonda/Mettaguda Para	Jegurgonda/Dantewada	All were killed in a fake encounter while they were on sentry duty to protect their crops
		Korsa Madhu	M/25	Silinger
		Korsa Sukkal	M/29	Silinger
		Kunjam Suresh	M/29	Timpuram
		Atami Bandi	M/26	Durvondarbha
		Kadti Subbal	M/21	Durvondarbha
		Uike Dula	M/22	Messum
		Uike Sannu	M/21	Messum
		Oyam Hidma	M/18	Vedire
10-Dec-10	2	Sadimek Laxmaiah	M/30	Gorli	Gorugonda	Bhadrakali/Bijapur	Caught and shot dead
		Micha Bhima	M/30	Gorgonda
14-Dec-10	2	Shyam Shankar	M/21	Kandanar	Netanar	Darbha/Bastar	Caught and shot dead
		Mahru	M/35	Koleng
14-Jan-11	1	Kalma Mangu	M/25	Badisetty	Singanguda	Sukma/Dantewada	Caught and shot dead by Koya Commando
17-Jan-11	2	Musaki Kosa	M/22	Gurgutta	Gurgutta	Bijapur/Bijapur	Caught and shot dead by STF, SPO and DF
		Kuhudam Budru	M/20
20-Jan-11	1	Midiyam Channu	M/16	Gumiyapal	Hirroli	Kuvakonda/Dantewada	Shot dead in weekly bazar while he was trying to escape arrest. Police arrested two persons and indiscriminately fired at Channu.
8-Feb-11	1	Korsa Sannu	M/35	Murunga	Murunga	Bijapur/Bijapur	Caught and shot dead by joint forces
24-Feb-11	2	Munna Oyam	M/23	Dharma	Gondmetta	Bhairamgarh/Bijapur	Both were killed in indiscriminate firing by Police, CRPF and SPOs.
		Rayyo	F/18	Bayil
11-Mar-11	1	Madvi Sula	M/28	Morupally	Morupally	Chitalnar/Dantewada	This elderly villager was picking tamarind from the tree when the Judum forces accosted him, accused him of being a Maoist informer and shot him dead in front of his wife and hanged from a tree.
12-Mar-11	2	Punem Lachhu	M/	Pullum	Pullum	Bhairamgarh/Bijapur	400 armed forces raided the village and took away 16 people with them after killing these two.
		Kunjami Kamlu	M/
14-Mar-11	2	Badse Bhima	M/29	Pulampad	Timmapur	Chitalnar/Dantewada	Picked up by the CRPF and SPOs  from Pulampad village on their way to Timmapuram. After setting the villages on fire, they hacked Bursey Bhima to death with an axe and Mannu Yadav was shot dead and was taken away to Chintalnar to be showed as a Maoist killed in encounter.
		Manu Yadav	M/28
29-Mar-11	1	Lakhmu	M	Kesamundi	Kesamundi	Bhairamgarh/Bijapur	Armed forces raided the village and picked up two people and one of those was shot dead
19-Apr-11	1	Rajnu Salam	M/14	Chinari	Chinari	Narayanpur	This unarmed boy was picked up from his village and killed brutally. His deadbody was taken away by his killers claiming that he was an armed Maoist.
TOTAL	195

 

Life Behind The Iron Curtain

Source:Tehalka

The hounding of activist Himanshu Kumar is a parable about the war and panic in Chhattisgarh and the complete blackout of information, reports TUSHA MITTAL

Time out, Gandhi Himanshu fasting; December 2009. His ashram was rubbled by the State in May
PHOTOS: TARUN SEHRAWAT

HIMANSHU KUMAR is shaving his moustache to become more unrecognisable. Instead of the usual white kurta, he’s wearing a red shirt and jeans. The lights in his two-room rented house have been turned off. If you chanced upon him on a winter night in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, speaking in hushed whispers about jumping off the back wall and disappearing into the darkness, you might have mistaken this Gandhian activist for a fugitive.

For the last 18 years, Himanshu has been trudging through the jungles of rural Chhattisgarh, empowering tribals, teaching them how to vote and bringing them access to food and healthcare through his Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (VCA). When his wife first joined him, he told her to replace her make-up kit with medicines. Despite living in this Maoist-dominated conflict zone for nearly two decades, despite its many intimidations, Kumar has never felt the urge to flee. Until now that is – when the might of the State is upon him.

Chhattisgarh: Sodi Sambo – Must Immediately Release her

India: Chhattisgarh authorities must immediately release witness to extrajudicial executions

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PUBLIC STATEMENT

AI index: ASA 20/002/2010

5 January 2010

Amnesty International urges authorities in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh to immediately free Sodi Sambo, an adivasi woman and eyewitness to the extrajudicial executions of nine adivasis in Gompad village on 1 October 2009. She is a petitioner in the ongoing case at the Supreme Court seeking an impartial investigation into the killings.

Journalists in the nearby town of Jagdalpur informed Amnesty International that they saw Sodi at a government-run hospital there in the custody of non-uniformed women constables who prevented them from talking to her. Sodi, who had sustained bullet injuries in her leg during the police shootings at Gompad, had been receiving medical treatment at the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (VCA), a Gandhian organization, at Dantewada. VCA activists told Amnesty International that they feared the Dantewada police were exerting pressure on her to influence her testimony about the extrajudicial executions.

On the afternoon of 3 January, Dantewada police arrested Sodi at Kanker town when she and VCA activist Himanshu Kumar were travelling from Dantewada to Raipur, the state capital. She was then taken to the Kanker and Dantewada police stations where the police said they would record her testimony about the1 October 2009 shootings.

Conduct worthy of a police state

In a free state Shambo and Himanshu Kumar detained at Kanker police station

Siddharth Varadarajan, The Hindu

The peremptory deportation of a Nepali student from India and the unlawful detention of a tribal woman shot by the police in Chhattisgarh raise troubling questions about the power of our ‘national security’ apparatus.

The Indian Constitution and various laws framed under it grant the Indian state and its agencies enormous power to regulate the movement of persons, especially when the bogey of national security is raised. These powers include the preventive detention of citizens under one pretext or the other and, under the Foreigners Act, the summary deportation of foreign nationals, including those that have legally entered the country and have not violated the laws of the land in any way. Indian nationals who are unable to prove their citizenship to the satisfaction of the police are also subject to summary deportation, without the automatic right to be heard by a court.

Implicit in the grant of such extraordinary powers in a democracy is the understanding that the exercise of authority will be governed by reason and justice in the broadest possible sense. When these principles are jettisoned, arbitrariness and abuse of power become the norm, exposing, under the brittle veneer of democratic paint, the ugly face of a police state answerable to no one other than itself.

Nitu Singh, a young woman from Nepal, is a final year student at the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India at Pune. On the night of December 5, 2009, the city police landed up at the FTII hostel without any warrant or paperwork, took her into custody, gathered her personal effects and moved her to Mumbai, from where she was deported to Kathmandu the next day.

Chhattisgarh: PUCL Condemns Detention of Gandhian Himanshu Kumar

Posted by Ka Frank on January 5, 2010

Vanvasi Chetna Ashram before it was demolished in May 2009

This article was published on MyNews.in on January 4, 2010.

PUCL condemns the detention of Himanshu of VCA

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) condemns the detention of Himanshu Kumar of Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (VCA), Dantewada and PUCL State Executive member of Chhattisgarh at Kanker Police Station today 3rd January, 2010. This detention has been made on the eve of the Public Hearing that was being organised by VCA on the atrocities being committed by police and security forces in that area.

According to the VCA, the detention of Himanshu at this stage is to clearly sabotage the hearing. According to PUCL national president Prabhakar Sinha and General Secretary Pushkar Raj Himanshu’s detention follows a series of harassment that he and his organisation have been subjected to which include:

· Demolition of his ashram outside Dantewda.

The Horror State of Chhattisgarh: a firsthand account from the Belly of the Beast

NANDINI SUNDAR

Ujjwal Kumar Singh, Professor of Political Science, Delhi University and I have just returned (January 1st) from a visit to the police state of Chhattisgarh. Ujjwal had gone for research and I had gone for a combination of research and verification purposes to assess the livelihood situation of villagers for our case before the Supreme Court, both entirely legitimate activities.

In Dantewada, we had checked into Hotel Madhuban on the 29th of December around 2 pm without any problems, only to be told later that night that the management required the entire hotel to be instantly emptied out because they were doing some puja to mark the death anniversary of the hotel owner. We refused to leave at night, and were told we would have to leave at 6 am instead because the rooms had to be cleaned. As expected, other guests checked in the next morning, puja notwithstanding.

At Sukma, we were detained by the police and SPOs at the entrance to the town from about 7.30 till 10 pm, with no explanation for why they had stopped us, and no questions as to why we were there or what our plans were. We were denied lodging – all the hotel owners had been told to claim they were full and refuse us rooms, and the forest and PWD departments had been advised not to make their guesthouses available, since ‘Naxalites’ were coming to stay.

Chhattisgarh Groups Plan Opposition to Operation Green Hunt

Source: Revolution in South Asia Posted by Ka Frank on December 15, 2009

Results of Salwa Judum, precursor to Operation Green Hunt

Campaign for Peace and Justice in Chhattisgarh

For the People’s Rightto Say No to Displacement and Tribal Genocide and to Demand the Right to Live with Justice and Peace

Raipur/Dantewada, December 1, 2009

Dear Friends,

You are aware that the tribals of Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh State are continuously facing large-scale displacement from their homes, fields and forests as well as a genocide in the last five years. The first aggressive onslaught was by the state sponsored vigilante group called the Salwa Judum. In the last five months, the people of this region are victims of a war called Operation Green Hunt. Paramilitary troops along with the state armed police deployed in very large numbers by the Central and the state governments are carrying out operations against the tribals in the name of curbing Maoists and reclaiming territories from them.

Rubber-stamp Authority

Rupesh Yadav
Sponge iron factory on the outskirts of Raipur

Chhattisgarh announced a proposed investment of more than Rs 1,77,000 crore in the state. Until October 2008, it had signed over a hundred mous with companies like Jindals, Tata Steel and Essar. After a couple of months of this announcement, a bureaucrat heading the state environment regulatory body resigned.

“Development is the preferred option, provided the carrying capacity is available. There cannot be a trade-off at the cost of the health and livelihoods of the silent majority,” wrote Sardar Amrieet Prakash Singh, former chairperson of the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (state eia authority).

The state eia authority was formed under the 2006 eia notification. The Union environment ministry also asked states to constitute a state expert appraisal committee, which would provide technical support to the state eia authority to grant or reject environment clearances to projects (see: Who gives the green signal). But Singh’s relations with both the expert committee and the Centre were strained. In a series of letters to the expert committee, Singh pointed how it continued to recommend clearances to industries in the highly polluting Siltara industrial belt, near Raipur, despite the state eia authority’s decision to disallow polluting industrial activity there.

‘Biggest land grab after Columbus’

A recent report blames the govt and firms such as Tata, Essar for a corporate takeover in the hinterland

Neelesh Misra

Bedanji, Chhattisgarh: In the remote rural expanse that could soon be gobbled up by a Rs19,500 crore steel plant, there is iron in the resolve of protesters.

“We will not give our land to Tata,” says 60-year-old Sankar Das, a frail dhoti-clad Hindu priest, even as he pokes round in a cloth bag during a meeting of village elders. Das produces a letter written by residents of his village, Bedanji, to the district administrator of Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, home to some of the world’s richest iron ore.

My land, my way: Villagers show a letter written to a government official that says they would not sell their land in Chitrakoot, Jagdalpur. Satish Bhate / Hindustan Times

Tata Steel Ltd, the country’s largest private sector steel maker, plans to invest Rs19,500 crore in a steel plant across 5,000 acres that will create 5.5 million tonnes of steel per year. Ten villages have to be emptied out to accommodate the factory.

“The Kakatiya kings brought and settled us here from Warangal 22 generations ago to worship the goddess and supervise sacrifices on Dussehra,” says the letter handwritten by Bedanji residents in Hindi.

“We shall not move.”

The Kakatiyas were medieval kings who ruled what is now Andhra Pradesh. But this is the enduring saga of modern India—farmers refusing to give their land to big businesses riding the wave of a booming economy, looking to feed the unending hunger of an infrastructure-hungry nation.

‘Green Hunt will result in genocide of Adivasis’

Gandhian Himanshu Kumar has been working among tribals in Bastar for more than 17 years. Though he has rehabilitated 30 villages devastated by the Chhattisgarh government’s anti-Naxalite campaign Salwa Judum, his ashram was demolished by the government in May this year. Kumar spoke to Jyoti Punwani :

How did you rehabilitate the villages?

As a Gandhian, I could not just stand by and watch when Adivasis who had fled their village because of Salwa Judum, were beaten up for having returned to their village to depose before the NHRC. I decided to set up camp in that village. If the Salwa Judum forces came to burn it, they would have to burn me first. We persuaded the villagers to come back. They had lost everything seeds, cattle because whenever they tried to return, the Salwa Judum forces hounded them into camps and burnt their village. We arranged for everything, helped them plough their land. Slowly others began returning. Peace reigned in those villages till last month when Operation Green Hunt began.

The Supreme Court has directed the government to rehabilitate the tribals. If the government is not willing, let me do it. I can bring peace in a week. You withdraw your forces and provide the amenities that were stopped after Salwa Judum started: doctors, schools, aanganwadis.

Will the Maoists allow these to run?

Medical officers tell me ruefully that it’s the CRPF that beat up their doctors who go into the jungle to treat patients. They beat up teachers too. They are furious that these people can travel safely inside the jungle, while they get blown up. I pointed out that doctors and teachers don’t go there with weapons like the CRPF does! Naxalites have said they will not interfere with my rehabilitation work because i have no political ambitions.

Is a dialogue possible?

What stops the government from talking to the Adivasis? You are a democratically elected government, find out what your people want. As for the Maoists, how can the Centre tell them to stop violence without stopping it first? Every day, your forces demand liquor, chickens, women… they behead a child in front of his grandfather, rape Adivasi women at will… And when the Adivasi picks up a lathi, they cry foul. Why are the forces there in Bastar? The Maoists weren’t marching into Delhi. Nor did the Adivasis plead for protection from them. When the police, the administration, the judiciary has turned against the Adivasis, the Maoists have stood by them. The forces are there only to hunt the tribals from their land, so that the state can hand it over to corporates. The state has no desire for peace and is too arrogant to acknowledge its crimes. We have tried to file 1,000 FIRs against the police; not one has been registered.

Salwa Judum saw a 22-fold increase in Maoist numbers. Green Hunt will result in genocide of Adivasis. Those who survive will become Naxalites.

Raipur Rally against Displacement, Oct 6 2009

Vodpod videos no longer available.

RALLY OF ANTI-DISPLACEMENT MOVEMENTS FROM ALL CHHATTISGARH IN RAIPUR ON 6TH OCTOBER.

The unrelenting loot of the abundant mineral resources of Chhattisgarh – iron ore, coal, limestone, bauxite, and even diamond and uranium has meant the total stranglehold of big corporates – foreign and Indian – over the State’s bureaucracy, polity, and even judiciary.

Multinationals Holcim and Lafarge have gobbled up the Indian cement companies and persist in earning super profits from the illegal exploitation of contract labour; Vedanta can get away with, and is in fact ably assisted by the State administration in, the criminal cover up of murder by negligence of nearly a hundred workers in a recent chimney collapse; Jindal and Monnet specialise in managing the pollution control department and so the Raigarh district, labouring under black clouds, drying water sources and disappearing forest cover, sees public hearing after public hearing where the public is never heard and clearances are granted, (Jairam Ramesh honestly called these environmental public hearings “match fixing” by the companies); a rash of sponge iron factories – mushroom in Raipur; Tata and Essar, with a little help from Collector Sahab, manipulate gram sabhas in the scheduled areas in gross violation of the PESA Act and employ every trick in the game to coerce people to accept compensations for land.

And in Bastar, where the huge ground clearing of 644 villages for “development by mining companies” is being resisted by lakhs of displaced adivasis, living in the jungles and therefore declared “outlawed”, who are struggling for their lands and livelihoods, the State is preparing to launch a full scale war ( now there is even talk of air strikes and American assistance) .

“If I’d tried to escape, Police would have shot me dead”

“They branded me a Naxalite…for days together, they locked me up in one tiny room… I had to shit, urinate and eat in the same room…”

When Linga starts talking he does not stop.

Linga is a young Muriya tribal from Sameli, a village in Dantewada. He is just one of the many caught in the terrible crossfire that is likely to escalate further. State and non state actors like the Salwa Judum on one side, and the Naxalites on the other. Like every other tribal in his land, he too has been asked to choose. Is he on the side of the state, or is he on the side of the Naxalites? A paranoid state government needs to have every tribal on its side if it hopes to win this war… as informers, as guides during their operation in the jungles, as special police officers, and as foot soldiers. They who are killed in what the police call an “encounter”, and the adivisis call,” murder”, pass off as dead Naxalites. In this strife, the same word does not mean the same thing to different people.

On 31st August morning, Linga was picked up from his home in Sameli by plainclothed but armed policemen. When they came for him, he was watching tv. Police took him to a CRPF camp enroute to the Dantewada police station. Linga says, “crpf ne bola yehi hai naxalite, phir maa behen ka gali diya… sarkar police ko achi tarah gaali dene ki training de kar bhejti hai kiya?”. In Dantewada, Linga was taken to the Superitendent of Police, Amresh Mishra’s room. ” The SP made me sit on the floor and kicked me. He asked me whether I was the son of a Naxalite? I said, I was the son of a farmer, my father has been a sarpanch. Then, for days together, they locked me up in one tiny room… I had to shit, urinate and eat in the same room…there was another boy with me. He was inside since a month. We were allowed to wash once in more than a week. They tortured us constantly. If you don’t support us, we will say you are a Naxal and kill you.”