One can recall the 2004 Naxal attack in Koraput, or the 2006 Naxal attack in R. Udayagiri, or the 2008 Nayagarh Naxal attack; incidents of this genre reveal that Orissa has always offered Naxals a safe haven to test their abilities. Recently on 29th June 2008, the Naxals showcased their ability over water when they attacked a motor launch carrying sixty six people across the Balimela reservoir in the Malkangiri district. These included 61 policemen from Andhra Pradesh - mostly Greyhound commandos, two from the Orissa police and there were three others. 28 out of these 66 persons swam to safety but the rest are missing. Massive search operations are underway that have so far resulted in the recovery of 18 bodies, with some 20 more persons yet to be accounted for.

Initial reports from the Naxalite zone reveals that the water ambush was masterminded by Chenda Bhushanam, alias Naga Raju alias Katru alias Bali Reddy, Kakuri Pandanna alias Pasanna alias Jogan, and Ravi, all established guerilla leaders of the Andhra-Orissa Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC). It is also reported that State Militia Commission, a recently constituted force of the CPI (Maoist), engineered the attack. The professionalism which the Naxals displayed leaves no doubt that they had all the information needed about the movement of this force. The Naxals were waiting for the security personnel to fall in their trap at Alampaka, a small mountain inside the reservoir. They fired from here using LMGs, SLRs, AK 47s, and Rocket Launchers. Earlier in the day, the Naxals captured another passenger boat which they used after the incident to flee to Janbai from where they managed to reach their safe territory of Papluar and Manyamkonda.

The Naxals in the border area of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattishgarh have started using inflatable boats for some time; recently the Malkangiri police seized a motor which was attached to an inflatable boat. The Liberated Zone claimed by the Naxals is the area where Malkangiri district of Orissa shares a border with the Bastar area in Chhattisgarh and Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh. Malkangiri is separated from Andhra by the Sileru river and from Chhattisgarh by the Saberi river. Besides the Sileru and Saberi, there is another inter-state river, the Mahendrataneya, between Orissa and Andhra. The Naxals have now raised a Boat Wing to facilitate faster movement of their cadres and weapons. S.K. Nath, DIG, southwestern range, Orissa confirmed the Naxal activities down these rivers a fortnight back.

Orissa has been witnessing a steady increase in incidents of Naxal violence. In fact, the provisional data till 1 July 2008 reveals that Orissa has suffered the maximum casualties among the Naxal-affected states. Orissa recorded a total of 99 deaths in this period which includes 57 security personnel, 28 Naxals and 14 civilians. In this same period, Chhattisgarh recorded 94, Jharkhand 82, Bihar 44, and Andhra Pradesh 38 deaths. Since 2006, the government of Orissa has banned the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and seven of its front organizations. The ban order was accompanied by a comprehensive surrender and rehabilitation package for the Naxals. However, the violence graph after the ban shows that the government has not been able to impose the ban successfully, nor has its surrender and rehabilitation package yielded many results. Unfortunately, the government is taking too long to realize that a ban is no solution; the government needs to effectively coordinate its military offensives with socioeconomic measures to make the ban effective.

While the Naxals in Orissa are increasingly becoming stronger, the government claims to be suffering from acute shortages of infrastructure and personnel. Of course, the state has every right to ask for central para-military forces and central funding for security measures; it cannot fight the Naxals effectively with 12,000 vacancies in the state police. Orissa has only 92 policemen per one lakh population, whereas the national average is 142 policemen. With extensive industrial and mining activities, the state government constantly boasts about its financial achievements; hence finance is not a problem to meet its security needs. Given the extraordinary situation in the Naxal-affected areas, Orissa needs a Joint Command to direct its anti-Naxal operations. The democratization of the development process and modernization of the military process must proceed together in all anti-Naxal policies and operations in Orissa. Anti-Naxal measures (security and socioeconomic) need good delivery mechanisms (political, administrative and police) to win over the people, which alone can end the ongoing Naxal violence.