Overview
- Government audits for 2019-20 and 2020-21 say 522.86 kg of tusks and ivory from the Punnathur Kotta sanctuary were not handed to the Forest Department and that required seizure and handover records were missing.
- Checks of ritual valuables recorded unexplained weight loss and substitutions, including a gold crown replaced with a silver ornament and a 2.65 kg silver vessel returned at 750 g.
- Auditors report that mandated registers and annual physical verification of valuables were not maintained, management decisions after July 2012 were unavailable for scrutiny, and inventories of copper, bronze and panchaloha items have not been updated since 2016.
- For 2020-21, auditors found temple spending roughly triple its income and about Rs 25 crore in deficits across Devaswom-related establishments, with revenue depressed during the pandemic period.
- Devaswom chairman V K Vijayan says the observations predate the current board, that replies have been filed in court, and that recent elephant postmortems were conducted in the presence of Forest officials.