Ongole, March 25: Facing the heat from paramilitary forces on the Andhra-Chhattisgarh border, Maoists appear to be making a tactical retreat, to their once impregnable fortress — Nallamala forest.
This, notwithstanding the recent ‘‘encounter’’ death of CPI (Maoist) leader Sakhamuri Appa Rao in the region. ‘‘Several Maoist camps have cropped up in the Nallamala,’’ a tribal belonging to Palutla village in Yerragondapalem mandal said.
Confirming the same, a former Naxalite said Operation Green Hunt, in full swing in the heartland of Maoists — Dandakaranya and Andhra-Orissa- Chhattisgarh borders — had forced the Naxalites to rethink their strategy. ‘‘About two years ago, the police shifted 130 tribal families from Palutla and other places to Venkatadripalem to mop up the area. But officials failed to implement the rehabilitation programme with the result that many tribals returned to the forest and developed a grude against the administration and Naxals are making the most of it,” a tribal said.
—Agencies