Veerappan

Koose Muniswamy Veerappan (January 18, 1952 – October 18, 2004), commonly known as Sandalwood Veerappan, was an Indian dacoit active for years in a broad swath of scrub and forest land covering 6,000 km² in the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. He long defied three state governments and Indian Border security paramilitary forces, maintaining at one point a small army numbering in the hundreds. He was wanted for killing approximately 184 people, mainly police officers (about 50% of total killings) including senior police and forest officials. He was wanted by Police of three states, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala, for several decades. He was wanted for poaching about 200 elephants and smuggling ivory worth US$2,600,000 and sandalwood of about 10,000 tonnes worth US$22,000,000. Veerappan had a price of 5 crore (US$0.91 million) on his head but evaded arrest for 20 years until he was killed by police in 2004.