where I have personally witnessed extensive hunting of all species of birds and mammals in complete disregard for the law.
Veerappan
By far the most striking case of flagrant viclation of forest and wildlife acts is the 34-year career of Koose Munisamy Veerappan (1952 — 2004), a bandit who was active for 36 years, and who kidnapped major politicians for ransom. He was charged with sandalwood smuggling and poaching of elephants in the scrub lands and forests in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala. He poached more than 2000 elephants smuggling ivory worth = 16 crore and about 65000 kilograms of sandalwood worth approximately = 143 crore. He was wanted for killing approximately 184 people, about half of whom were police officers and forest officials and kidnapped prominent politicians and actors for ransom. The battle to capture Veerappan cost the governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over = 100 crore. He could continue in this fashion for such a length of time because he enjoyed widespread support from the local villagers. In early 1980s some nature conservationists I] knew wanted to take out a public demonstration condemning Veerappan in the town of Erode in Tamilnadu. They had to give up the idea when many local people threatened to attack their demonstration stating that while Foresters only harassed them and prevented them from earning a decent living, they were grateful to Veerappan because he provided them sorely needed employment and earnings.
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