Naxal-hit districts down to seven: Government review

A fresh review of the regions affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) has brought down the number of affected districts in the country to seven from eight, a development that aligns with the Union Government’s declaration on ending the Naxal menace by March 2026. The Ministry of Home Affairs has recently issued the new categorisation to all Naxal-affected states with effect from February 9, officials said.

A comprehensive review of the “National Policy and Action Plan to Address LWE” was undertaken recently by the Union Government, analysing 38 districts across nine states, including Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and West Bengal. The last such review was held in December 2025.

The national action plan regulates resources allocated to these states and districts under two broad heads of the Security-Related Expenditure category. These are “LWE-affected districts” and “legacy and thrust districts”. The LWE-affected districts have three further sub-sets.

According to the new classification, the “LWE-affected districts”, where Naxal violence and activities are still being reported, have been reduced to seven from eight recognised in the December 2025 review. These seven districts are Bijapur, Naraynapur, Sukma, Kanker and Dantewada in Chhattisgarh; West Singhbhum in Jharkhand, and Kandhamal in Odisha.

There are three sub-categories to LWE-affected districts: “most affected districts”, “districts of concern” and “other LWE-affected districts”. The “most affected districts” continue to remain the same from the last review — Bijapur, Narayanpur and Sumka in Chhattisgarh.

There are two “districts of concern” where Naxalism is waning, but focused deployment of resources is still required. These are Kanker in Chhattisgarh and West Singhbhum in Jharkhand.

The “other LWE-affected districts” category has seen a reduction of one district from December 2025. At present, there are two districts in the category: Dantewada in Chhattisgarh and Kandhamal in Odisha.

Under the “legacy and thrust districts” category, there are 31 districts across nine States now, as compared to 30 in December 2025. According to the home ministry’s definition, “legacy districts” are those that are no longer LWE-affected but need support in terms of security and development works for some time.

The “thrust districts” are those that are prospective sites of Naxal expansion and therefore require continued support. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has repeatedly asserted that the Naxal menace, once called the biggest internal security challenge for India in 2010, will see an end by March this year.

Shah had described Naxal violence as a challenge to democracy, saying that it has claimed around 17,000 lives of civilians and security personnel so far.