Deaths and incidents due to Left-wing extremism (LWE) will become negligible in the next four years if the current trend of decrease in such incidents continues, a Central government report suggests.
According to an annual report released by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the number of deaths has decreased by more than 75 per cent and incidents due to LWE have also come down by almost 63 per cent in the last eight years.
In 2010, a total of 2,213 incidents were reported in which 1,005 people lost their lives in LWE violence. These incidents came down to 833 and 240 people died in 2018. In the first three months of 2018, 175 incidents took place and 33 deaths were caused due to the LWE violence.
A significant decline was seen in the incidents of LWE violence in the last five years. The spread of the LWE extremist also shrank geographically.
"The declining trend in LWE violence continued in 2018 as well. There has been an overall 26.7 per cent reduction in violent incidents (1,136 to 833) and 39.5 per cent reduction (397 to 240) in LWE related deaths since end-2013," the report said.
In comparison to 2017, the year 2018 saw a decline of 8.3 per cent (908 to 833) in incidents of violence and the number of deaths by 8.7 per cent (263 to 240)," the report said.
It also claimed that the casualties to security forces also declined by 10.7 per cent (75 to 67) and the number of LWE cadres eliminated went up by 65.4 per cent (136 to 225).
"At the same time, the developmental outreach by the Government of India has seen an increasingly large number of LWE cadres shunning the path of violence and returning to the mainstream," added the report.
Chhattisgarh (392 incidents and 153 deaths) remains the most affected state followed by Jharkhand (205 incidents and 43 deaths), Bihar (59 incidents and 15 deaths), Odisha (75 incidents and 12 deaths) and Maharashtra (75 incidents and 12 deaths).
Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand together accounted for 71.7 per cent of the violent incidents and 81.7 per cent of deaths, the report said.
According to the report, Odisha and Maharashtra accounted for 9 per cent of the incidents each while LWE incidents in Bihar accounted for over 7 per cent in 2018. Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana together reported less than 4 per cent incidents.
( With inputs from ANI )