Mohanlal uses Kerala amnesty

Mohanlal landed in huge trouble when a routine income tax raid in 2011 in Kochi’s Thevara neighbourhood home, found elephant tusks and ivory artefacts displayed as heirlooms. They were seized under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which strictly prohibits possession of ivory without government certification and a case was registered.

At that time, Mohanlal claimed he tusks came from a captive elephant that died of natural causes and that he kept them as memorabilia. He claimed not to know it was unlawful to keep them. The case slipped into oblivion after the government allowed him to declare the tusks in 2015, and he was issued an ownership certificate in 2016.

In 2011, Mohanlal challenged the Kerala High Court , the judgement of Perumbavoor court and got interim stay and it was effective till 2025. In 2016 and 2019, he requested the government to withdraw the case, maintaining that the ivory and tusks were lawfully acquired. The plea was dismissed in 2023. The High Court in 2025, ruled that the ownership certificates issued were not legally valid. The state government was asked to issue a new notification. This came after a group of retired forest officers, conservationists, and former wildlife wardens petitioned the HC over the certificates which allowed him to keep these tusks. The court did not direct the prosecution of the actor.

Finally Mohanlal relented and declared to the Forest Department that he possesses 10 elephant tusks, six more than his initial declaration, and 13 ivory idols. Officials at the Malayattoor Divisional Forest Office in Kochi told PTI that the declaration was made under the department’s amnesty scheme, in which individuals can declare unregistered wildlife articles to avoid legal action.

The ivory idols he declared include those of Lord Krishna, Lord Rama, and Tirupati Balaji, with a total weight of around 46 kg. Mohanlal has claimed that most of the tusks in his possession are inherited or received as gifts.

---- Pramod Nandivada