Brigadier Basant Kumar Ponwar: The Soldier Who Taught India to Fight the Guerrilla Like a Guerrilla
Brigadier Basant Kumar Ponwar (Retd), the decorated 1971 war veteran and architect of India’s modern jungle warfare doctrine against Maoist insurgency, passed away at the age of 77 at his parental home in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh. His family confirmed the news in late July 2026. Survived by his mother, Devika Ponwar, and two sons serving in the Indian Army, Ponwar leaves behind a transformative institutional legacy that reshaped how Indian security forces confront left-wing extremism in the dense forests of central India.
Born on 3 March 1949 in Indore, Ponwar came from a family steeped in military tradition—his father had served in the Middle East during the Second World War. He was commissioned into the 1st Battalion of the Maratha Light Infantry (1 MLI), known as the Jangi Paltan, in December 1969. Early postings took him into active counter-insurgency in Nagaland, where he gained his first deep exposure to guerrilla tactics and cross-border operations.
The 1971 Indo-Pakistani War defined his early combat experience. Serving under the 95 Mountain Brigade, the young officer led raids against Pakistani positions in Kamalpur and Bakshiganj. He conducted ambushes alongside Mukti Bahini fighters and played a crucial role as a link officer during the historic Tangail paradrop—one of the most decisive airborne operations of the conflict that accelerated the advance toward Dhaka and the liberation of Bangladesh. These operations demanded close coordination, rapid movement through difficult terrain, and the ability to operate with local irregular forces, skills that would later define his approach to counter-insurgency.
Over a distinguished 36-year Army career, Ponwar commanded his battalion and a brigade in active counter-insurgency sectors. He served as an instructor at the Commando Wing of the Infantry School in Belgaum, at the Officers Training Academy in Madras, and at the Army War College in Mhow. His final Army posting was as Commandant of the Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) at Vairengte, Mizoram. There, in 2004, he oversaw the inaugural Indo-US exercise Yudh Abhyas, marking an early chapter in bilateral military cooperation focused on counter-insurgency and jungle operations. For his exceptional service he was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and the Vishisht Seva Medal.
When he retired from the Army around 2005, the then Governor of Chhattisgarh, Lieutenant General K.M. Seth, a fellow veteran of northeast operations, requested his services. Maoist influence had expanded dramatically across central India. Vast stretches of Bastar—an area of 10,000 to 15,000 square kilometres larger than the state of Tripura—remained largely inaccessible to security forces. Local police often avoided crossing the Indravati River, and casualties mounted as conventional tactics proved inadequate against guerrillas who knew the jungle intimately.
Ponwar accepted the challenge. Appointed Inspector General of Police by the Chhattisgarh government, he founded the Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College (CTJWC) at Kanker in North Bastar in August 2005. With a small team of nine officers and men drawing on Army experience, he established the institution in just four and a half months. Earthmovers carved out firing ranges, endurance tracks, obstacle courses, open classrooms, and even a helipad from the hills. The campus, eventually spanning hundreds of acres, was deliberately designed to replicate the battlefield rather than a conventional parade ground.
The college’s motto, coined under his direction, was simple and uncompromising: “Fight the guerrilla like a guerrilla.” Training lasted about 45 days and was relentlessly practical. Trainees—men and women from state police forces and central paramilitary organisations—rose before dawn for physical conditioning that continued regardless of weather. They practised long-range patrolling, raids, ambushes, seek-and-destroy operations, cordon-and-search techniques, and survival skills. Multiple specialised firing ranges simulated ambushes, quick-reaction shooting, and encounters in thick forest. The goal was to produce operators who could move lightly, think like their adversary, master the terrain, and live off the jungle when necessary.
Results came quickly. Within days of the first Young Commando course ending in 2005, trained personnel eliminated Maoists in an open encounter—the first such success for Chhattisgarh police in that manner. The college’s reputation spread. Police personnel from ten Maoist-affected states, along with units of the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB and others, began arriving for training. Over 18 years under Ponwar’s leadership, more than 37,000 security personnel passed through the institution. Some accounts place the figure higher as the college continued its work. He also pioneered the use of local mongrels as sniffer dogs for IED detection, demonstrating that hardy indigenous breeds could outperform expensive pedigreed alternatives in the harsh Bastar terrain.
Ponwar’s philosophy extended beyond tactics. He repeatedly stressed that pure military pressure was insufficient. “Without security, governance is a challenge,” he observed. Gains on the ground had to be consolidated through development, intelligence, and measures that undercut the ideological appeal of the Maoists while ensuring operations did not alienate the local population. He argued for aggressive dismantling of the rebels’ networks rather than endless talks that he viewed as tactical diversions. His approach contributed to the gradual contraction of Maoist influence from hundreds of districts to a much smaller core area over the subsequent two decades.
Even after formally retiring from the police role around 2022, the imprint of his methods endured. Specialised anti-Naxal units across states drew on the standards and mindset developed at Kanker. The college itself continued as a key training hub. Colleagues and former trainees remembered him not merely as an instructor but as a demanding yet inspiring figure who insisted that the human body and mind could endure far more than most believed when properly tested.
In Tripura, where he had earlier served as Sector Commander of 21 Sector Assam Rifles between 1999 and 2001 and conducted successful operations against NSCN(IM) elements, tributes highlighted his broader counter-insurgency record. Across Chhattisgarh, leaders including Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai and former Chief Minister Raman Singh expressed deep sorrow, noting that his contribution to professionalising the fight against left-wing extremism would remain unforgettable. The state police described his work as foundational to strengthening the security system.
Brigadier Ponwar’s career spanned more than five decades in uniform—first in the Army and then in the police. From the battlefields of East Pakistan in 1971 to the forests of Bastar, he consistently translated hard-won combat experience into institutional capacity. He understood that defeating a guerrilla movement required matching its methods while exceeding its discipline and organisation. By building a college that produced thousands of capable jungle fighters and by embedding a practical doctrine of adaptation and aggression, he altered the balance in one of India’s most intractable internal security challenges.
His passing marks the end of a remarkable life of service. Yet the doctrine he championed—“Fight the guerrilla like a guerrilla”—and the generations of personnel trained under it continue to operate in the forests he knew so well. In that sense, Brigadier Basant Kumar Ponwar’s influence outlives him, carried forward by those who learned to respect the jungle, master it, and prevail within it.
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