The explosives, concealed in two plastic tanks buried under the ground, were seized by the police from Kushatand forest in the Mohanpur police station area of the district, Superintendent of Police Amit Jain told PTI.

The SP said the Naxalites used the explosives for manufacturing can bombs and landmines. Asked if the material seized also included high-grade explosives like RDX or TNT, he said it could be established only after a forensic test.

It was not immediately known if the police stumbled on the massive storehouse of explosives accidentally or were tipped off about its presence in the jungles.

A police source on condition of anonymity said, high-profile CPI (Maoist) commander Ajay Kanu, who was arrested from a place under Tankuppa police station of the district on February two, could have informed the police about the presence of the huge cache of explosives during interrogation.

Kanu, who carried a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh on him and is currently lodged in Beur jail at Patna, had escaped from Jehanabad sub-jail on November 13, 2005, during the jailbreak in which nearly 400 inmates, many of them Maoist guerrillas, had fled.