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  • A daily life scene shows Salwa Judam SPO (special police officer) militia in their guard tower within the protected compound of a police station in Errabore. The SPO's are paid Rs1250 (18 Euro) a month but complain that the Naxalites are better equipped and trained than them, many feel the naxalites are winning the war
    GuardRoom.jpg
  • It is the tribal people caught in the middle that are the real losers of the war against the Naxalites. Many, such as this young tribal girl in Dantewada district, are poorly educated and malnutrished.
    TribalGirl.jpg
  • Rahul Sharma head of the police in Dantewada district is seen standing in his command centre with a map showing inaccessible roads and areas in the district.  His assessment was that 40 per cent of the state was in naxal hands, 40 per cent was held by the government and they were fighting over the remaining 20.  "It is the biggest casualty theatre for the Indian government in the country.  It is a full blown war and the naxals are migrating from guerillas to a full blown conventional army."
    RahulSharma.jpg
  • The tribals, or adavasi as they are known, have lived in the jungles of India for thousands of years, not even the British were able to control them. But now poverty and illiteracy has left them vunerable to exploitation from both the Naxalites and the state.
    Tribal.jpg
  • Mahendra Kumar, former congress MP and the man who started the Salwa Judam Militia movement. Some criticize the movement as only having been created so that the Chhattisgarh state could profit from getting access to the vast reserves of mineral deposits in the jungle, with little or no benefit to local people.<br />
To continue the fight against the naxalites the Salwa Judam concept is beginning to be replicated by other states in India.
    MahendraKumar.jpg
  • SPO's prepare for a night patrol around a Salwa Judam camp in Bastar district. Each SPO is given five rounds for their 303 rifle, a tactic that has proved dangerous for them as the Naxalites attack and wait for the SPO's to use their five rounds before attacking them with full force. The SPO's complain that the Naxalites are better equipped and trained than them.
    Nightpatrol.jpg
  • A Salwa Judam Special Police Officer (SPO) stands within the confines of a protected police compound with his INSAS rifle. Weapons are chained to the SPO militia making it much harder for the Naxalites to take them..SPO's are paid Rs1250 (18 Euro) a month and have no ranking system or opportunity to rise within the ranks.
    ChainedINSAS.jpg
  • In the district of Bastar six hours walk into the jungle a Naxalite Maoist memorial sits. The hindi script honours three Naxalite women who it says were raped and killed by the Salwa Judam militia and police. It says 'The martyrdom will not be in vain' and 'Long live the people's guerilla army'.
    NaxalMemorial.jpg
  • In the village of Pandewar police and special security stand guard whilst villagers cast their vote for the second time in the state elections. Voting a few weeks before in the same village had resulted in the Naxalites destroying the (EVM) electronic voting machine and threatening locals that their hands would be chopped off if they voted again.
    Voting1.jpg
  • On the road from the state capital Raipur to the southern Chhattisgarh town of Dantewada a Naxalite poster warns 'Til now we elected the leaders, now we will beat them with violence'.
    TreeWarning.jpg
  • Police stations have become reminiscent of forts and are now protected by barbed wire and mines as with this one in Bastar district in south Chhattisgarh.
    TheFort.jpg
  • A young policeman watches for potential attack from the Naxalites as voting takes place for the second time at Pandewar village in Dantewada district. During the first polling Naxals came and destroyed the electronic voting machine.
    OnPatrol2.jpg
  • The jungle warfare training college in central Chhattisgarh was specifically set up to train police to combat Naxalism. Policemen aged anywhere between 18 and 60 attend the six week course where they learn everything from catching snakes for food to shooting whilst riding a horse. In its first three years over 6000 policemen have passed the six week course. (pictured) A 60 yr old policeman who has just finished the course stands.
    60'sCops.jpg
  • Mutti Muchaki sits in her village Nendra. In 2005 the Salwa Judam militia and police forced her and her family to the nearby Salwa Judam camp of Errabore seven kilometres away. She was never to see her husband or two sons again, later she heard that the Salwa Judam had killed them with knifes throwing their bodies into a drain.
    FamilyKilled.jpg
  • Salwa Judam Militia stand guard against a possible Naxalite attack during repolling in the village of Pandewar. The first polling a few weeks before had resulted in the Naxalites destroying the (EVM) electronic voting machine and warning the villagers their hands would be chopped off if they voted again.
    Watchin.jpg
  • Under armed security from the police locals cast their vote at a polling station in Raipur district in the centre of Chhattisgarh. Naxalites oppose the democratic process believing in a one party communist state and as a result have routinely attacked polling stations.
    Votin2.jpg
  • A member of the Salwa Judam militia in Errabore camp in the southern Chhattisgarh district of Dantewada. Many have left the camps, some of which held 40,000, because of lack of work and facilities. Those that stay have little option, they are Salwa Judam members and will be killed should they or their family return to their jungle villages.
    TheCamp.jpg
  • The jungle warfare training college in central Chhattisgarh was specifically set up to train police to combat Naxalism. Policemen aged anywhere between 18 and 60 attend the six week course where they learn everything from catching snakes for food to shooting whilst riding a horse. In its first three years over 6000 policemen have passed the six week course. (pictured) To build courage the men fire live rounds at targets next to each other..
    ShootEm.jpg
  • Not all members of the Salwa Judam militia are armed with rifles, some simply use bows and arrows like these pictured on the road leading to the Errabore Salwa Judam camp.
    SalwaJudam1.jpg
  • Tribal women stand still as a patrol made up of police and Salwa Judam militia pass them by in Dantewada district.<br />
The relationship between the local tribals and the state remains a tense one.
    OnPatrol3.jpg
  • A patrol made up of police and Salwa Judam militia passes a local tribal women in the south Chhattisgarh district of Dantewada.
    OnPatrol.jpg
  • Brigadier Ponwar who set up the jungle warfare training college in central Chhattisgarh. The college was specifically set up to train police to combat Naxalism. Policemen aged anywhere between 18 and 60 attend the six week course where they learn everything from catching snakes for food to shooting whilst riding a horse. In its first three years over 6000 policemen have passed the six week course.
    BrigPoddar.jpg
  • In the village of nendra, seven kilometres away from Errabore Salwa Judam camp, tribal women prepare food. The eviction of jungle dwelling tribals, or adavasi as they are known, by the Salwa Judam was seen as a way of starving the Naxalites from their source of food.
    Food.jpg
  • 20 yr old Laxman Bhogami, an SPO militia member, seen inside the protected compound of the Bairamgarh police camp..'The Naxalites are getting stronger, it feels like their winning'.
    Concerned.jpg
  • Members of the Salwa Judam militia stop and chat in the main street of Bastar in southern Chhattisgarh. Militia members are armed at all times giving the area the feel of the American Wild West.
    BastarStreet.jpg
  • Timmaia Muchaki is the Nendra village headman, he has since become an alcoholic after the three attacks on his village by the Salwa Judam militia. The attacks saw 16 adults and nine children killed along with the burning of 145 homes.
    TheChief.jpg
  • In the village of Nendra some seven kilometres away from the Salwa judam camp of Errabore lies a small building covered with naxalite graffiti. The words explain why villagers must not vote in the elections and not support the state as well as general Maoist propaganda.
    NaxGraff.jpg
  • Suspected Naxalites talk about the difficulites of life for local tribal people.
    Naxals.jpg
  • In the police post at the Salwa Judam camp in Errabore a policeman watches carefully over the landscape for a possible Naxalite attack. Previously the camp was attacked resulting in the deaths of 55 police and Salwa Judam Militia members.
    HidinWithin.jpg
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Adrian Fisk

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