In 1991, he shot P Srinivas, a Karnataka Deputy Conservator of Forests and beheaded in a Kali temple. During the subsequent years, he killed tens of police officers and tribal people, whom he felt, were against his illegal trade. In 1997, he kidnapped Karnataka forest officers and after lot of negotiations with "Nakkeeran" editor Gopal, he released them. In the same year, he kidnapped 21 tourists, but later released them without any harm. He came to national limelight when he kidnapped the Kannada actor Rajkumar during 2000. His last big crime was in 2000, when he abducted Nagapppa, a retired minister of Karnataka. Nagappa was found dead in the forest later, but Veerappan denied his killing. He was also wanted for poaching about 200 elephants and smuggling ivory worth US$2,600,000 and about 10,000 tonnes of sandalwood worth approximately US$22,000,000. A reward of was offered for Veerappan's capture, yet he evaded arrest for 20 years until he was killed by police in 2004. The joint Special Task Force (STF) operation of Veerappan, constituted in 1991 by the state governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, is considered one of the costliest in Indian history, consuming 1 billion over the years. The operation involved infiltration by the police men into enemy camp with the help of tribal people. Since Veerappan was aware of the terrain of the forest, it was planned to bring him out of the forest. As per the report of police, the report was planned for ten months, the execution took 3 weeks and the final operation lasted only 45 minutes. STF personnel infiltrated as hawkers, masons and local service staff in the villages where Veerappan was supposedly roaming. Down the years, due to ageing and others getting killed, his troop was reduced to four men. Veerapan was planning to take a medical treatment for his eye in South Arcot and was planning to flee out of the forest. On the day of the operation, Veerapan was escorted out of the forest to the ambulance stationed at Papirappati village in Dharmapuri district, which was a police vehicle, by one of the police who earlier infiltrated his gang. A 35 member troop was stationed in the village, a few security men were hiding in security tankers in the road and others were hiding in the bushes. The driver of the ambulance, who was also a policeman, made an escape.