Birds, Beasts and Bandits: 14 Days with Veerappan

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A witty and poignant account of an extraordinary adventure with India’s most dreaded bandit, Veerappan and his CompanionsVeerappan responded in a soft voice: ‘It has been many years since I killed elephants. But no one believes me if I say so.’ In a comic case of mistaken identity, wildlife photographers Krupakar and Senani were kidnapped one night from their home at the edge of the Bandipur National Park by Veerappan, India’s ‘most dreaded bandit’. He thought they were important government officials, and his plan was to hold them hostage in return for clemency and a substantial ransom.The bandit and his gang kept the hostages on the move in the forest, and their only contact with the outside world was via an old transistor radio. While Veerappan,who had already killed some 250 people, formulated strategies to force the government to agree to his demands, his hostages not only got a close look at the plant and animal diversity in the forests of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, but the intimacy of their life on the run gave them an insight into Veerappan’s strange mix of cruelty and humanity. Though Krupakar and Senani came from a world that was completely different from that of Veerappan’s gang, the kidnapped and the kidnappers became closely involved in each other’s concerns.

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Krupakar and Senani are wildlife film-makers by profession and conservationists by passion. On a voluntary basis, they run a non-profit society called Namma Sangha. They work together under the name Krupakar-Senani Features.Together, they have travelled extensively, studying, photographing and filming birds and animals of the Western Ghats. More than forty of their photo-essays have been published in popular Kannada magazines. Their work has won acclaim from peers worldwide, and state and central governments in India. They have contributed over one thousand photographs to leading books on birds the world over, and to magazines such as Natural History Magazine, Geo, London Times and BBC Wildlife. Two of their recent films on Asiatic wild dogs, for National Geographic and Discovery channels, have achieved international acclaim. The Pack, which they shot for Discovery Communications, won the ‘Green Oscar’ 2010, the first ever Asian film to have won this award.