Undermining industry - Maoists target India's extractive sector

A Maoist attack on 6 April in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district was the most violent attack in more than 40 years of communist insurgency in India.

Dantewada has significant mineral wealth and India's largest public iron ore producer and exporter, National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), derives 78 per cent of its annual iron ore production from the district. NMDC has already been affected by the insurgency; the company claims it has lost millions of dollars as a result of its infrastructure being targeted.

The range of the Maoist threat is widening. Four of the states targeted by the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-M) (Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa) are rich in mineral reserves.

The government has adopted a two-pronged paramilitary and legal counter-insurgency strategy but it is unlikely to address the various underlying grievances in mineral-rich areas.