India, April 24 -- After days spent navigating forest-fringed settlements in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh, the journey curved south. On February 12, 2026, we drove roughly 235-240 km into Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh-a district known for rice and oilseed milling, cotton textiles and timber, but also shaped by a history of Naxalite-Maoist insurgency along its forested edges.

As we entered what locals call the "rice bowl of central India," we paused at a roadside dhaba for lunch. A plate of steaming aromatic IR 64 rice with dal, vegetables and fish arrived-simple and familiar after three days in Madhya Pradesh. Refreshed, we continued through stretches of forest, hills and meadows, scanning for villages near forest areas where the pres...