He spent 14 years in one of India's most dangerous postings.
Not one. Not two. Fourteen.
And today, Sundarraj Pattilingam, the longest-serving IGP of Bastar, is finally walking away.
Next stop: the National Investigation Agency.
He first walked into Bastar in 2005. A young officer. Salwa Judum had just begun. Tribals were being armed to fight Maoists from their own villages.
He was 25. The forest was on fire.
Four stints later, he's 46 — and Bastar is largely free of Left Wing Extremism.
May 21, 2025. Abujhmarh forest.
A 72-hour operation. Security forces close in on the top of India's Maoist pyramid.
By the end of it:
For the first time in decades, the movement had no head.
Sundarraj was the man holding the map.
Ask him about wins and he deflects.
Ask him about lessons and he opens up.
👉 "I learnt how to hide my emotions and accept the uncertainty of Bastar."
The phone could ring at any hour.
An encounter. An IED. A surrender. A civilian killed.
Sometimes good news. Sometimes a colleague gone.
He attended the last rites of jawans he had never even met.
His coping mechanism? Not a leadership book.
A farm.
"There are years of abundant harvest and years of loss, despite putting in the same hard work."
Farming taught him humility. Bastar tested it.
After every successful operation — even the biggest ones — he banned celebrations inside his force.
"Our objective was never revenge."
Let that sit for a moment.
The commander who hunted India's most wanted Maoists… refused to let his men cheer.
Not a missed target. Not a failed operation.
The jawans who didn't come home.
"The loss of even a single jawan weighs heavily on the conscience of every commander."
To Bastar: Lasting peace needs all of us.
To surrendered Maoists: Surrender is not the end of a journey. It is the beginning of a new one.
Fourteen years. Hundreds of operations. One quiet exit.
The jungle finally lets him go.
That's all for now!
