Bengaluru: Former Special Task Force (STF) chief K. Vijay Kumar, who headed Operation Cocoon that led to the killing of forest brigand Veerappan on October 18, 2004, claimed that the dreaded outlaw was an expert in jungle craft and this helped him outwit security forces for long.
He made this remark while answering to a question raised by IPS officer Kanwaljith Deol at the Bangalore Literature Festival on Sunday.
Sharing his experience during a panel discussion - Tailing Veerappan, the retired IPS officer said, “We had deputed over 200 sentries around 400 water spots in the forest. Not even once we found the outlaw approaching any of these spots in search of water. This was because he was such an expert that he harvested water wherever he was. He was much more resourceful than us.”
Right from the age of 12 or 13 years he started mastering the jungle craft, which was not an easy task for us to do. A poacher is an elusive target, he said on why it took long to nab him.
Moreover, the intelligence was more favourbale towards him than us. This was mainly because those who gave us tidbits were not only killed, but their whole family was gunned down by the brutal killer. This instilled a sense of fear, he added.
On the glorification of the forest brigade as ‘Robinhood’, he said, “Veerappan was just a bloated figure and wasn’t any Robinhood. He was helpful only to a select lot, who he felt would be helpful to him.”
Replying to a question raised by an audience on the celebration of death anniversary of the brigand and the building of a memorial at Moolakkadu village near Mettur, where he was buried, the 1975 batch IPS officer said, “I do not have any objection to this. But Veerappan should not be made into a mythical good guy.”
