The situation is very tense. For one, the overarching fear of Maoism has led to the enactment of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act.

The second thing is what is happening in Dantewada in particular, where they have the Salwa Judum for three years... It's still very tenuous. Salwa Judum is not at its peak anymore.

Many people have gone back from the villages to the camps. It's a war zone still.

The urgent thing to do is bring about immediate normalcy. There needs to be a genuine, large-scale inquiry into the matter. Three years of violence at this pitch is completely inhuman. People are desperate for peace.

How many police forces and how many Special Police Officers are there in Chhattisgarh?

The government has given different figures each time on how many SPOs there are. The collector's memo of 2007 said there were 4,048. The DGP has put out a different set of figures. The government has given different figures to the National Human Rights Commission. So we really don't know what the actual figures are.

We don't know how many people are killed. We get a whole range of conflicting figures from the government. So, one of the problems is getting information.

There is a huge contingent of security forces. There are 13 battalions in the area. That is roughly one paramilitary person to every 46 people. The population is only seven lakhs.

As a result of Salwa Judum, the Maoist strength has also gone up. More and more Maoists have joined in and they have created Maoist battalions. So the place has become much more militarized.

Tell us about the SPOs.

Many of them are unemployed youth who joined to get Rs 1,500 per month. So this is policing on the cheap. They don't get same the compensation as the police get. Nor the same training, same discipline, the same arms. Forms were distributed and they just joined up to get jobs. Many are minors, some are criminal elements, who were active in Salwa Judum and some were surrendered sangam (Maoist group) members.

Police tell us some of them are people from the families killed by Naxalites. They are particularly vengeful. So is a revenge force the best way of policing?

How many have villagers have fled?

It's hard to estimate how many have fled. Out of 1,200 villages, according to official estimates, 644 villages are affected. Which means out of a population of seven lakhs, around three lakhs are affected. So our estimate is anywhere from 40,000 to 1 lakh have gone to Andhra Pradesh running away from the Salwa Judum and from the Naxalites in some cases.

Image: A Special Police Officer during a patrol in Dantewada.

Also read: 'Salwa Judum can't work in the long run'

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