THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state’s most prominent elephant welfare NGO, Heritage Animal Task Force, opposes Padma Bhushan for actor Mohanlal. In a letter to the President, Task Force secretary V K Venkitachalam said that Mohanlal was the prime accused in a criminal case charged by the Forest Department for possessing 13 pairs of elephant tusks from his house in Kochi.
Mohanlal is one of the names recommended by the state for Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honour in the country.
The case against Mohanlal had been registered at First Class Judicial Magistrate Court at Perumbaavoor in Ernakulam district.
“As per records available from the office of the Kerala Chief Wildlife Warden, the film actor Mohanlal does not have any authorization from the Kerala Forest Department to own either an elephant or its trophies as per the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 or the Declaration of Wildlife Stock Rule, 2003,” Task Force general secretary V K Venkitachalam said in the letter.
“He is the only film actor in India having the criminal case against himself for such a serious Wildlife offence,” the missive added.
It was on June 14, nearly a year after the Income Tax sleuths discovered tusks in the actor’s home, that the Forest Department registered a case against Mohanlal under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
The then forest minister KB Ganesh Kumar had ruled out an inquiry. The case is now pending in the High Court following a PIL filed by a private individual.
Mohanlal’s argument was that he was gifted the tusks and that he had all the relevant documents. “If the actor says that he had been gifted the tusks, he is clearly in the wrong,” said M N Jayachandran, Animal Welfre Board member.
“The Wildlife Act clearly states that the elephant or its tusks cannot be gifted,” he said.
Section 39 of the Wildlife Protection Act bars persons from transferring animal trophies to others by way of gift or sale.
