Gadchiroli

Maharashtra's least industrialised district, heavily forested with teak and tribal-majority (Gond and Madia communities), and long the state's centre of Naxalite insurgency. High-grade iron ore reserves at Surjagarh, under mining since 2016 despite Maoist attacks and villager protests, have anchored a recent state push — including a 2025 slurry pipeline and planned steel township — to industrialise the district.