A Menace Ended!!!!

“VEERAPPAN” does this name ring a familiar bell? Oh yeah loud enough i guess, after all who can forget this bandit with his trademark moustache n mysterious ways. A guy for whose capture, the police offered a reward of 20 million rupees in India, wherein with each passing year, the reward amount kept increasing but no sign of any success of his capture.
From a young age I’d been hearing about his terror tactics, from his connection with more than 100 murders, holding the famous film star Rajkumar hostage, to his notorious ivory poaching and sandlewood smuggling for millions of dollars and kept wondering why it was so difficult getting this guy behind bars....Well I knew soon enough!

Veerappan’s domain was a vast area of forest, bordering the southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The police tried adopting various strategies to capture this fugitive; the ultimate attempt made by the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka’s combined task force of nearly 2,000 police officers who literally combed through the forests.. (2000 police men to capture one man!!!!) unfortunate outcome- they failed to pin down this elusive bandit!Their failure each time was probably because of his excellent information network, which enabled him to stay one step ahead of law enforcers. I’d once heard that villagers in the area kept silent about his movements because of the terror tactics of his gang members, who would kill anybody suspected of being an informer. Besides it was claimed he had powerful political backing and connections which helped him all along.

His supporters liked to project him as a kind of Robin Hood figure. In my opinion he was far fetched from being Robin Hood! Veerappan - whose name translates as "brave", was nothing close to being brave either, killing close to 2,000 elephants (maybe more) with the help of a gang of similarly heartless, deranged people.... murdering innocent people....Besides, how anyone can kill animals to make a living, that too for a long long time, I could never fathom n don’t think I ever will. His ‘career’ graph went on from elephant poaching, graduating to illegal sandalwood smuggling, kidnapping, murder – the works!

He was no doubt the country's most ruthless and daring outlaw and his reign of terror continued for many decades until recently I read, the police received a tip-off that he was hiding near the village of Paparapatti in the Dharmapuri region, where they moved in large numbers. The 20-minute gun battle, ended in a hail of bullets where Veerappan was killed with three of his associates.
Knowing how notorious he was, I’d just hope he doesn’t have any successor to follow in his footsteps. Hopefully, with his death a legend is now put to rest....FOREVER!