Justice delayed in the Veerappan hunt: A long fight for recognition

Peninsular India has seen one of the most dreaded poachers of wild elephants and smugglers of sandalwood of the 1980s and 1990s in Veerappan. Along with his gang, he operated in the forests connecting the Eastern and Western Ghats, as well as in the Western Ghats spread over the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

Caught once by the police in a restaurant in Bengaluru during a routine check ahead of the 1986 SAARC summit, Veerappan escaped from Budhipadaga forest rest house custody, where he was undergoing interrogation. Thereafter, he remained elusive for nearly 18 years and continued poaching wild elephants for tusks and plundering sandalwood trees in the forests of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Based on credible information, many attempts were made by police and forest personnel of both states to apprehend the brigand, but all failed. The lives of several forest and police personnel from both states were lost in the process.

Between 1988 and 1991, this author was also in the task force to nab him while working as Deputy Conservator of Forests, Kollegal. 2,000 sq. km of forest on hilly terrain in my division's jurisdiction along the right bank of the river Cauvery, and a similar extent along the left bank in Tamil Nadu, provided a good number of hideouts for Veerappan and his gang to stay and operate.

The hideouts could be reached only by trekking through the jungle on very steep slopes. The road networks for vehicular movement were quite poor. Every operation to nab the brigand was carried out with personnel from both forest and police departments, who were fit enough to walk up to the hideouts and safeguard themselves from the enemy's response. Forest personnel were better able to trek inhospitable terrain compared to policemen.

These days, we have GPS to track locations, and we can move from one place to another in inhabited areas without assistance, but I wonder whether GPS would work in dense forest areas without roads or any human habitation. Forest guards and forest watchers were our GPS in the 1980s and 1990s, and even at present. Without their active involvement and support, it was virtually impossible to trek the forests and succeed in any operation.

I remember an incident on January 6, 1990, when I was accompanied by the Superintendent of Police of the district and fifty other police and forest personnel to recover a huge quantity of sandalwood cut from Gopichettipalayam forests of Tamil Nadu and hidden in Karnataka's forests. The gang guarding the stock fired on us, injuring two policemen among us.

We abandoned the search, as the injured had to be shifted to hospital. That day, we were moving in seven jeeps on cart tracks in the forests. Numerous such tracks are available inside forests; it was my forest personnel and I who guided the team out of the area. A month and a half later, 65 metric tonnes of sandalwood were recovered from the spot in a massive operation conducted by forest and police personnel of both states. It is known as the 'Silvekal seizure' in government circles.

Many forest and police personnel in both states were killed in a number of operations launched to nab the gang thereafter.

The conflict between the brigand and both states went on for more than fifteen years and lasted till 8 October 2004, when Veerappan was eliminated in an encounter in the Tamil Nadu forests near Dharmapuri. The final operation was planned and implemented by Vijay Kumar, Additional Director General of Tamil Nadu Police, who had to rely on a hand-picked, trusted team for its success.

Both state governments ordered rewards for officials of the police and forest departments who contributed to the fifteen-year-long operation leading to the elimination of Veerappan. The Karnataka government order was issued on July 8, 2005, indicating a reward of `1 lakh cash payment to an individual for every year of service, with a cap of `3 lakh, along with a site irrespective of the duration of service. This order was implemented for police personnel within years.

Tamil Nadu, too, rewarded all police personnel involved in the operation and a few forest personnel. This led to discrimination, as a large number of Tamil Nadu forest personnel and all Karnataka forest personnel went without reward.

The Karnataka Forest Department, after a detailed enquiry, recommended to the government that 259 personnel who rendered their services in the fifteen-year-long operation be rewarded. The government pruned this list and rewarded only six personnel who were involved in the final operation.

Several representations made by the remaining personnel were turned down, and 32 personnel approached the Karnataka High Court in 2015 for relief. Later, 64 additional personnel also moved the court for similar relief.

The High Court, in its 2024 order, said: "It is known the world over that Veerappan was not gunned down in a day, but it took several lives and several years, and several persons had risked their lives in providing information about Veerappan from time to time. The state could have either rewarded all who were involved in hunting down Veerappan or not at all.

It could not have trivialised the effort and courage of all those who were killed or who had survived the onslaught of the brigand by restricting the reward to only a handful." Despite this order, the government released rewards for 12 petitioners and requested the court to review the remaining cases, stating that they were not part of the Special Task Force constituted to nab Veerappan. The High Court of Karnataka, on April 21, recently rejected the plea of the state and directed that rewards be granted to all 96 petitioners.

The State of Karnataka's plea to restrict the reward to those who were on duty in the final phase of the operation is bizarre. If this argument is extended, none of the Karnataka police personnel would be entitled to the reward, as they did not take part in the final assault.

Only Vijay Kumar, ADG TN, and his hand-picked team members would be entitled to it, and all other persons in the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu police departments would not be entitled. But the states have already rewarded them, so why are the forest department personnel being discriminated against?

I hope the Karnataka High Court's April 21 order is taken by the state in the right spirit and that the forest personnel's twenty-year wait is brought to an end. The value of `1 lakh in 2005 is hardly `30,000 today. Since the court has not directed payment with interest, the government should consider this an opportunity to correct long-pending discrimination at minimal cost.

The persons to be rewarded are all senior citizens, and quite a few have passed away. The government should take the moral high ground and comply with the High Court's direction. This will go a long way in keeping the morale of present staff high and sending a positive signal for the conservation and protection of forests and wildlife.

In the changing scenario, the protection of forests and wildlife is becoming increasingly challenging. While sister departments of the state move for diversion of forests for so-called legitimate projects, local inhabitants grab forest land with the help and support of politicians. In a warming world, as temperatures rise, wildfires are becoming uncontrollable and are significantly impacting regeneration and reproduction. It is not the time to demoralise forest staff at the cutting-edge level. Without their active and sincere efforts, forests will continue to be degraded and fragmented.