In to the forests where Veerapan the brigend once ruled

We'd had our final night in the whizzy named Hotel Devi Towers in Salem and headed for the mountainous region of Tamil Nadu where a man known as Koose Muniswamy Veerappan had until very recently reigned as a modern day Robin Hood. The Robin Hood image that some of the villagers had of Veerappan was largely on account of the monetary help he gave them in return for food.. In this very remote region he kidnapped influential people releasing them in exchange for money. Eventually he was shot dead not long ago after having been at large for many years... To hear these stories made the journey even more exciting.

He was described as an Indian bandit, who started out as a poacher. He once beheaded a police investigator who is supposed to have killed his sister and was on his trail. He later started smuggling sandalwood as well. He was been caught more than once and escaped and ran back into the jungles where was able to hide or ambush his pursuers. He allegedly raided police stations for arms, and medicine for himself and his men... He was supposed to have killed more than 120 people and 2000 elephants over 20 years, so sounds a bit dodgy to me.

It was to these territories we were heading.

On the way we passed a very large Temple and stopped for a comfort break and Prabha said a few prayers and I was presented with a huge garland of flowers.



Onwards and forever upwards we seemed to go into the forests and mountains.



The road was had lots of tortuous bends and huge buses and trucks struggled to stay slow enough to negotiate them. In many places the safety wall had been smashed and huge drops appeared below. Several times we braked hard to avoid these vehicles approaching us on the wrong side of the road.



Eventually we reached the gate to the tribal forest area. Here on a wall was a big mural advocating safe sex to avoid Aids. It seemed such an unlikely thing to see here, I had to photograph it.

From here on in we were in the special tribal areas in a controlled national forest where one can only go with special permission. I wondered what lay ahead, certainly Tigers and Elephants wander freely and there are many man/animal conflicts going on.