May 20, 2011

Counter Naxalism – Technology Advantage

State security forces as well as Naxalite are making maximum use of technology to advantage. The Naxals have started using High Frequency (HF) radio for communications to avoid being tapped by the police. "Naxalite and their cadres have been using cellular phones and VHF sets to communicate but recently we have found that they are now communicating on HF sets," Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Border Security Force (BSF) Ram Avtar was quoted by the PTI. “We have been using our in-built equipments to track and intercept Maoist communication on wireless for quite sometime now”, said the BSF officer, who commands five battalions (5,000 personnel) of the force in Kanker.

Naxal leaders many of whom are technically savvy have been continuously staying ahead of the technology curve from time to time. Thus there has been considerable pressure on government forces to upgrade technology over a period. But the Naxals who had been extensively using VHF and even mobile communications have been now more careful for they have had a number of leaders apprehended possibly due to leakage of locations and information of important meetings over the radio. HF communications being difficult to intercept may require far more sophisticated equipment than that available with the police so far and thus some procurements may be in the offing. The security forces have moved some interception equipment from Jammu and Kashmir to meet the new challenge.

The Chhattisgarh government is also planning to use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) of the Indian Air Force for reconnaissance of Naxal-hit areas as security forces are planning operations to enter Maoist stronghold of Abujhmad, a 7000 square km densely forested area. "We are in talks with the IAF to get the help of their different variants of UAVs which can fly over the Naxal-hit areas in the state and provide us surveillance of the ground. The IAF has it's UAVs presently at Nagpur and we plan to use them from a base in Jagdalpur," Director General of Police (DGP) Vishwa Ranjan told PTI. The Maoist domination of the areas is evident as the last operations in Abujmadh were launched in 1996.

However operating UAVs in Naxal affected areas is also creating problems as surveillance radars and other sighting systems have to penetrate foliage obtained in the dense forests of Abujmadh area. There have been numerous trials that have take place with a variety of radars and thermal imaging devices but so far success rate is pretty low. Without adequate penetration of electronic devices through heavy jungles there is unlikely to be any progress on this front. UAVs are valuable in terrain like tribal areas of Af Pak where hills are relatively barren as compared to Chhattisgarh; the challenge thus remains technical and would necessitate R & D interventions in this direction.