Ten tusks. Thirteen idols. One amnesty form. Mohanlal’s ivory declaration lands right in the middle of a court battle that started in 2011. The Forest Department is watching, and now, so is everyone else.
Source: Instagram
Mohanlal has told the Kerala Forest Department that he owns 10 elephant tusks and 13 ivory idols. He made this declaration under a government amnesty scheme meant for people holding undocumented animal parts.
Officials at the Malayattoor Divisional Forest Office confirmed the news on Monday, July 6, 2026. The information was first reported by PTI.
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The timing is notable. Mohanlal is currently fighting a court case linked to allegations that he illegally possessed animal parts.
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Mohanlal had earlier declared four elephant tusks. Now he has added six more to that list, bringing the total to 10.
Along with the tusks, he has declared 13 ivory idols. These include figures of Lord Krishna, Lord Rama and Tirupati Balaji. Together, the idols weigh close to 46 kg.
According to Mohanlal, most of the tusks came to him through family inheritance. Some were gifted to him over the years.
Forest officials said they will now conduct DNA tests on all the declared tusks and idols. This step is meant to verify their authenticity and origin.
They also explained the purpose of the amnesty program. It allows people to come forward and report animal parts they hold without proper documents. In exchange, they can avoid prosecution. This scheme is aimed at bringing hidden or undeclared items into official record.
This is not a new issue for the actor. The matter goes back to 2011, when the Income Tax Department raided his residences. During that raid, officials found elephant tusks and ivory idols at his properties.
After the raid, the Forest Department filed a case against Mohanlal. The charge was that he held two pairs of tusks without the required permits.
Over the years, the Kerala government tried to withdraw the case against him. However, the trial court did not accept that request. The matter then moved to the Kerala High Court, which backed the trial court’s decision. The High Court ordered that the legal case against Mohanlal should continue.
In October last year, the Kerala High Court delivered another important ruling in this case. The court said that the ownership certificates given to Mohanlal were not valid. These certificates had been issued by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Wildlife. They covered the ivory items found at his residence in Thevara, Kochi, during the 2011 raid.
Court called these certificates “illegal and unenforceable.”
This ruling came after a public interest litigation was filed in the case. The petition was filed by James Mathew, a former Forest officer, along with Paulose A.A. from Ernakulam. Both men had challenged the way ownership of the ivory items was granted to the actor.
The order was passed by a Division Bench. It included Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Jobin Sebastian.
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