Chennai: India's most wanted bandit M Veerappan, who kidnapped a former state government minister on August 25, has remained a step ahead of police throughout a 15-year reign of terror during which he has reportedly murdered 100 people.

The wily bandit, who sports an imposing moustache, operates in thick sandalwood forests in Southern India's Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states and is an expert tracker and hunter.

Time and again Veerappan, who began his criminal career as an elephant poacher and sandalwood smuggler, has attacked quarries and then disappeared into the dense jungle trail.

He first hit the newspaper headlines in 1987 when he murdered forest officer Chidambaram who was trying to stop his poaching trade.

The crime seemed to embolden him and two years later he shot dead three more forest guards. A year later he killed three officers and a constable who were trying to arrest him.

When Karnataka's deputy conservator of forests P Srinivas was on his trail in 1991, Veerappan lured him into a hideout in Gopinatham village near Mysore city, shot him dead and beheaded him at a temple of Hindu goddess Kali.

A year later when a special team of police was closing in on him Veerappan killed the leader of the team, Harikrishna, and five others with grenades.

In 1993, Veerappan made his single biggest strike when he triggered a landmine killing 22 policemen travelling in a bus. The same year he killed six more policemen during an encounter with his gang.

The closest police have got to catching him was in 1994 when a special team tracked him down after he kidnapped Tamil Nadu's deputy superintendent of police Chidambaranathan and three others.

The police freed the men, but Veerappan managed to slip past their net. Veerappan has routinely killed people in villages surrounding his forest hideout if he suspected them of being police informants.

Over the last few years, the bandit has stopped murdering people and has indulged in high profile kidnapping of politicians, celebrities and other people.

In 1997, Veerappan abducted 10 Karnataka state forest officials and later released them after long negotiations through an intermediary, Nakkeeran magazine editor R R Gopal.

The same year he kidnapped 21 people, including 14 tourists and two wildlife photographers, and freed them after a week.

Veerappan shot again to prominence two years ago after he abducted legendary Karnataka film star Rajkumar from his farmhouse on the border of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The kidnapping sparked outrage in Karnataka's capital Bangalore as his fans targeted vehicles and establishments run by people from Tamil Nadu, Veerappan's home state.

The actor was released after 108 days in captivity following negotiations with the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments.

Veerapan's latest abduction of former state government minister H Nagappa shows age has not slowed him down and he remains as dangerous as ever.