These photos throw light on the kind of life Veerapan leads in his forest hideout...»
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The Army is not familiar with the terrain of Chamrajnagar, Kollegal and Satyamangalam, the hideouts of Veerappan. These are densely forested areas, which could mean a protracted operation against the bandit difficult. Veerappan, on the other hand knows every nook and corner of the forest. He can strike and get away, at will.

• Veerappan uses landmines extensively. This could lead to heavy causalties for the Indian Army in case they fail to detect and defuse the landmines.
• Veerappan uses crude landmines made up of gelatins obtained from granite queries, which sometimes go undetected by sophisticated detectors.
• The combing operations by the Army would entail evacuation of over one lakh villagers in and around the 14,000 sq. km. Veerappan's fiefdom stretches from the Eastern Ghats of Chinnamapathy in Coimbatore district to Anchetty in Dharmapuri district.

Despite best efforts there is no guarantee that the Indian Army will succeed. "Veerappan is a clever chameleon and knows how to camouflage himself in the dense tropical jungle", observe officials.

Nevertheless, "Veerappan is not invincible", states MP Bhagat. He believes that given a free hand, freedom of action and flexibility, and the will to absorb casualties on the part of the Government, there is no reason why the security agencies can't succeed.

Experts also feel that diplomacy is not going to work with Veerappan who understands only the laws of jungle. "In the jungle rule might is right. Veerappan understand the language of force and can be dealt only with it", says Bhagat.

Uday Bhaskar, deputy director of Indian Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis, (IDSA) however feels that Veerappan's menace is a visible sign of state governments' failure to deal with internal security. He emphasis: "Every measure should be taken to bring Veerappan to book. No one can be allowed to play with the people's life."

The question however remains – Given a chance; can Army hunt for Veerappan who has always scored points in hide and seek games with security forces?