“We’re very poor folks. He by no means denied us something we requested for. He used to say ‘Don’t hesitate to ask me something. I’m your brother.’ He helped us at any time when and wherever we approached him. Our grievances could not have been his concern, however he would take up the problems and get it executed,” remembered Lakshmi from Kunjanur village, reiterating why P Srinivas was a real ‘folks’s officer.’

In our pursuit to honour the unsung heroes of humanity, The Higher India provides tribute to P Srinivas, the daring forest martyr with a coronary heart of gold.

The one officer who arrested Veerappan

Born in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh on 12 September 1954, Pandillapalli Srinivas was the eldest son of Anant Rao and Jayalaxmi.

An excellent scholar all through faculty and faculty, he topped his Masters’ course at Andhra College and handed the Indian Forest Service examination in 1979.

After being recruited within the Karnataka cadre, his first posting as Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) in Chamarajanagar introduced him in shut quarters with Veerappan, at a time when the latter was solely a small-scale ivory poacher.

As ACF, Srinivas drew up a foolproof plan to seize all of the poachers and smugglers energetic within the forests of Karnataka. He even compiled a complete listing about every miscreant and circulated their pictures in public, sealing all the protection valves for his or her escape.

His methods proved impeccable and led to the interception of a substantial variety of smugglers and poachers. Quickly, Srinivas was promoted to the rank of Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) in Chamarajanagar. When the nation’s focus was on the continuing SAARC summit in Bangalore on November 16–17, 1986, he accomplished a frightening operation and efficiently caught Veerappan.

Over a collection of rigorous interrogations, Veerappan, who was confined on the Budipadaga Forest Relaxation Home, occurred to reveal among the main lairs of his infamous gang and the smuggled sandalwood.

Based mostly on the knowledge, Srinivas single-handedly raided lots of his lairs throughout Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, amassing giant quantities of stolen sandalwood. Nevertheless, Veerappan managed to sneak out and escape the forest relaxation home in Srinivas’s absence, when he was out on one such raid.

The folks’s officer

Regardless of it being a lapse on the a part of safety officers, Srinivas took the blame upon himself and got down to carry Veerappan to justice. He stood out amongst his predecessors together with his inclusive strategy⁠—by befriending the native villagers and looking for their assist in his mission.

To date, the connection between the villagers and forest officers had largely been bittersweet. The operations carried out by the latter had affected the villagers however didn’t contain them, and this had led to rising deference and resentment.

Srinivas was the primary officer to interrupt the invisible boundaries and mingle with the villagers; even coaching and fascinating them in his discreet operations. He related with them and broke down the significance of forest conservation in layman phrases.

In his collection on P Srinivas, celebrated journalist Ramesh Menon wrote, “He labored on befriending the villagers. He stayed of their homes. He listened to them. He tried to seek out options to their issues. He talked the language of conservation. He spoke of why elephants must be allowed to reside in an ecosystem, why sandalwood bushes shouldn’t be lower. He even began dwelling in Gopinatham, the village the place Veerappan grew up.”

Rehabilitating harmful dacoits

The rising recognition of Srinivas in his native village upset Veerappan, as he now discovered villagers volunteering as informants and troopers for Srinivas.

To ship out a warning, Veerappan murdered among the native informants and hanged their severed heads within the village. Later, he distributed a few of his robbed wealth among the many villagers, like a modern-day Robin Hood.

The villagers had been shocked to the core, however Srinivas stayed unflinching from his goal. He was an ardent believer within the precept of Satyanveshan⁠—which advocated non-violence to take care of criminals and reform them as a substitute of punishment.

He rehabilitated a number of dacoits and smugglers by offering them with different employment alternatives and even managed to combine former gang members of Veerappan into mainstream work.

His strategy had such a far-reaching impression that in 1990, a number of associates of Veerappan surrendered earlier than him. Srinivas ensured all of them had been launched after trial and received rehabilitated.

A philanthropist

Srinivas unfailingly nurtured his philanthropic aspect, which introduced him nearer to the grassroots. He created elaborate ingesting water amenities in distant tribal villages, constructed roads to inaccessible hamlets and likewise began a cellular dispensary in Gopinatham. When medical workers fell brief, he learnt fundamental drugs to help docs within the dispensary. Utilizing his financial savings, he constructed homes for homeless tribals.

As an avid forest lover, he carried out a number of afforestation drives and advocated sustainable planning for forest division places of work, to go away the forest unscathed. His forest improvement initiatives usually overlapped together with his tribal improvement efforts.

“He employed Veerappan’s sister Maari within the dispensary and tried his greatest to counsel Veerappan’s brother Arjuna to desert his outlaw existence,” says an official report by Dr Marri Channa Reddy Human Useful resource Improvement Institute of Telangana.

The brutal homicide

Whereas society hailed Srinivas as a real social reformer, the infamous legal took the worst benefit of it. Within the morning of 9 November 1991, Srinivas acquired a wi-fi message that Veerappan had determined to give up beneath the situation that Srinivas would meet him personally, unarmed and unaccompanied by guards.

A believer within the goodness of individuals, Srinivas set out in direction of Veerappan’s alleged den. As destiny would have it, he didn’t obtain the backing of Particular Process Power (STF) since his tenure with the STF had expired early that yr.

Alone and unarmed, Srinivas was crossing a 6-km extensive creek the subsequent morning, when Veerappan’s males fatally shot and later beheaded him. He died on the prime of his youth, barely two months after turning 37.

He was posthumously awarded the Kirti Chakra—the second-highest nationwide honour for gallantry—on 26 January 1992.

His brutal homicide nonetheless haunts the villagers of Gopinatham and the pristine forests of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. When Veerappan was lastly killed in 2004, the villagers rejoiced the avenging of their favorite ‘brother’s’ dying.

P Srinivas is likely to be a forgotten chapter in India’s historical past, however his life and work proceed to resonate within the forest lores of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. His legacy lives on among the many villagers, who stay his most loyal admirers.

Picture Credit: A Tribute To A Martyr by Dr MCRHRD IAP

Edited by Gayatri Mishra