New Delhi: For decades, the spectre of Maoist violence cast a long shadow over India’s internal security. As security infrastructure expanded, the number of police stations reporting Maoist violence fell dramatically, from 333 to just 16. These tools enabled security forces to identify Maoist movements with greater accuracy and launch intelligence-based operations deep inside forested terrain. Once regarded as the ideological and operational headquarters of Maoist violence, the region has undergone a dramatic shift over the past decade. For years, successive governments had accepted Maoist violence as a chronic challenge to be managed rather than decisively defeated.