The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) announced Wednesday that the number of districts most affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE), also known as Naxalism or Maoism, has decreased from seven to just three in the last six months. This marks significant progress toward the Modi government's goal of completely eradicating the Naxal menace by March 31, 2026.

According to the MHA, the three remaining "most affected" districts are Bijapur, Sukma, and Narayanpur, all located in Chhattisgarh. Previously, these districts, along with Kanker (Chhattisgarh), West Singhbhum (Jharkhand), and Gadchiroli (Maharashtra), were included in the "most affected" category. Following a recent review by the Home Ministry, Kanker, West Singhbhum and Gadchiroli have been moved to the "affected" category.

The total number of LWE-affected districts has also decreased, dropping from 18 in March 2025 to 11. These 11 districts include the three most-affected districts and Dantewada, Gariyaband, and Mohalla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki (all in Chhattisgarh), West Singhbhum (Jharkhand), Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh), Gadchiroli (Maharashtra), and Kandhamal (Odisha).

Several districts have been removed from the MHA's list of LWE-affected areas, including Alluri Sitarama Raju in Andhra Pradesh, Kalahandi and Malkangiri in Odisha, Bhadradri-Kothagudem and Mulugu in Telangana, Latehar in Jharkhand, and Nuapada in Odisha. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are now free of LWE-affected states. Earlier in March 2025, Kerala (Wayanad & Kannur) and West Bengal (Jhargram) were also delisted.

The MHA attributes this success to a multi-pronged approach that includes strategic counter-insurgency operations, development initiatives, and improved coordination between state and central governments. These efforts have led to record-breaking operational successes in 2025, with 312 LWE cadres killed, including the CPI (Maoist) General Secretary and eight other Politburo or Central Committee members. Additionally, 836 LWE cadres have been arrested, and 1,639 have surrendered and joined the mainstream, including one Politburo member and a Central Committee member.

Home Minister Amit Shah hailed this progress as a "historic milestone" and reiterated the government's commitment to eliminating Naxalism by March 31, 2026. The MHA stated that the government's National Action Plan and Policy include intelligence-based and people-friendly counter-LWE operations, swift domination of areas with security vacuums, targeting of top leaders and overground workers, countering the Naxal ideology, infrastructure development, saturation of welfare schemes, choking of finances, and accelerated investigation and prosecution of Maoist-related cases.

Naxalism, once described as India's "biggest internal security challenge" in 2010, appears to be visibly receding. In 2013, 126 districts reported Naxal-related violence, but by March 2025, this number had fallen to 18, with only six classified as "most affected". The government aims to eliminate the "Red Corridor" that Naxals had planned to establish from Pashupati in Nepal to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.