Page 167 - Sanidhya 2025

Beyond Bullets and Blasts:

How a CRPF Doctor Braved Bijapur’s Battlefield to

Save Two Lives

(Inspired by true events from India’s conflict zones in LWE area)

The Crucible of Conflict: Bijapur’s Dual Reality

On February 2024, Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh pulsed
with tension. As security personnels engaged in
Operation against Naxal offensive a parallel drama
unfolded here, in the Palnar Forward Operating Base
(FOB) of the 222Bn CRPF, Dr. Anantha Krishnan J faced
a different kind of emergency: 25 year old tribal anemic
woman with preterm labour & Premature rupture of
membrane about 4 hours earlier was carried on a
makeshift cot for about 8 km from todka village which
was strong hold of Janmilitia at that time, her faint
breaths syncopated by the thud of distant firecracker
bursts done by local Janmilitia.

Bijapur epitomizes India’s counter-insurgency challenges
-a region where about 732 IEDs were seized in 2024-25
alone, yet where 12 security personnel died and 46
suffered injuries from hidden explosives just this year .
Against this backdrop, every medical decision carried Critical maternal anemia with low BP (80/50 mmHg)
lethal stakes.
Premature rupture of membrane about 4 hours
earlier
Code Blue in a Red Zone: The Impossible Choice
Intrauterine growth-restricted (IUGR) fetus with
decelerating heart rate
The patient’s vitals screamed crisis:
Premature labor at 32 weeks in a region with infant
mortality rates 40% above national average.

Dr Anantha’s triage was brutal: delay meant certain fetal
death and high maternal mortality; transfer risked
ambushes on IED-laden routes. Even states 108
ambulances doesnt dares to traverse this mud tracks
fearing IEDs.Just few days earlier, buried explosive
during a routine patrol was detected in nearby route .
With no road security clearance due to sudden
emergency & time being a constraint , the 30km journey
to Bijapur’s NICU was a gauntlet of mud tracks primed
for destruction.