The traits that make Veerappan a survivor

According to a senior police officer, the greatest strength of Veerappan is the forest terrain and his survival capabilities in that forest.

“Veerappan and his associates are born and brought up in those forests. They can trek 30 to 40 kms easily in the dense forests, making the urban trained police it a herculean task to follow the pace. Besides, Veerappan and his gangsters live like wild beast ò they can drink the water in which we hesitate to wash our hands,” the officer said.

“Secondly, most of these deciduous forests have thick undergrowth, which makes visibility restricted to some meters. During an operation in 1992, when Veerappan kidnapped son of a granite quarry owner, we had missed Veerappan by some meters. But we could not realise that as he had taken shelter under thick secondary growth. We learnt about it only after the boy was released, who told us that he could see the police, but could not alarm them as Veerappan was holding gun to his head,” the officer said.

The second strength of Veerappan is support of villagers in the forests. The police say that it is very hard to find informers ò either the villagers are sympathisers of Veerappan or scared of him. Most of the police informants have been killed by him.

Veerappan’s communication network in the forest also outsmarts the police. While police use wireless, Veerappan and his followers rely on the villagers, who gather information more efficiently. He also tracks the police wireless signals.

Police say Veerappan’s weakness is his impulsiveness and fear. But this had turned to his advantage in most of the cases.

A police officer recalls how Veerappan left his rifle and fled the scene during an encounter. But this has made him extremely cautious.

Police say that Veerappan was a loner even when he is with his gang. He suspected everything, including his food. His mode of attacks also drastically changed and never took the police head on. His quick ambush would lost only few minutes and before the police regained their feet, Veerappan would have vanished in the thick forest, police added.