Veerappan .. a name whose name was feared not only in Tamil Nadu but also in Karnataka and Kerala. Veerappan’s exploits used to be discussed in the country as well as abroad. Born on January 18, 1952, Veerappan grew up to be infamous as a dreaded sandalwood smuggler. Veerappan was accused of killing hundreds of people and killing about two thousand elephants. The search for Veerappan, who had become a headache for the police, went on for nearly 20 years.
Veerappan’s full name was Kooj Muniswamy Veerappan, born on 18 January 1952. Veerappan is said to have started hunting elephants from the age of 17. One thing more infamous about this dreaded man was that he used to shoot bullets in the middle of the forehead of elephants. However, to find Veerappan, the state government, along with the police force, had conducted an operation spending crores of rupees for about 20 years, but every time he escaped.
Veerappan killed K. Vijay Kumar had told in an interview given to the BBC that once Veerappan was caught by the forest officer Sri Niwas, but he escaped with some trick. Then a few days later Veerappan killed the same officer and beheaded him. Apart from this, Vijay Kumar says that once in the year 1993, he was surrounded by the police and when he thought that he could be caught because of the crying of the newborn daughter, Veerappan had strangled him.
Most of the policemen, forest officers were the target of Veerappan. For decades Veerappan smuggled sandalwood and ivory. There was a time when Veerappan was said to have covered the forests of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka with his moustache. Veerappan was as famous for his exploits as he was for his mustache. Veerappan’s companions were also no less dangerous, he used to take his life at the behest of his kingpin.
Tired of Veerappan, Jayalalithaa Sarkar formed a task force, whose job was to catch Veerappan dead or alive. For this work Vijay Kumar was selected. However, earlier also the government had spent crores of rupees on the search for Veerappan and creating separate task forces. But when Vijay Kumar comes to know from the informers that Veerappan is about to leave the forest for the treatment of his eye. That’s when he was killed in a 20-minute encounter in October 2004.