civilians were most affected in the ongoing fighting between maoist rebels and government security forces. of the 16 states touched by this conflict, chhattisgarh and jharkhand were the most affected. one positive note for chhattisgarh was that fatalities, although still high, were significantly down from 2007. similarly, andhra pradesh, the state with the most maoist activity a few years ago, has improved security with a corresponding drop in fatality rates. unfortunately, as conditions have improved in chhattisgarh and andhra pradesh, the maoist forces seem to have shifted their operations to the state of orissa where conditions have worsened. south asia terrorism portal’s fatality count across the six states that saw the majority of the fighting (bihar, orissa, jharkhand, maharashtra, chhattisgarh, and andhra pradesh) was 794. this included 399 civilians, 221 security force personnel and 174 insurgents.