When it comes to Karnataka's forest cover, even a brigand like Veerappan had his uses. His dreaded presence in the jungles in advertantly served to preserve the state's green cover, even though the bandit himself was an unrepentant poacher of elephants. "He kept encroachers at bay," admits ^ ornithologist and bird specialist H M.B. Krishna, says who is now H rallying around his friends to save H trees in the state's urban areas. But following Veerappan's H death in October 2004, large H tracts of forest areas have been H virtually thrown open to land- H grabbers and encroachers. R-Elephants, their habitat shrinking