India¡¯s blood-soaked six-decade Maoist insurgency may be over, but a lethal legacy remains: hundreds of crude land mines planted by the rebels along forest tracks.

For decades, Maoist fighters seeded vast stretches of central India¡¯s forests with pressure-operated improvised explosive devices (IEDs), often buried just beneath dirt roads or hidden along jungle footpaths.

Rudimentary in design ¡ª gelatin, ball bearings and metal fragments packed into a steel lunch box ¡ª they were nonetheless devastatingly effective, say those who fought the insurgency.