Minister for Forest and Wildlife A K Saseendran on Thursday sought a report from the District Collector and Chief Forest Conservator (North Zone) after three people lost their lives when elephants turned violent during a temple festival at Koyilandy in Kozhikode. The Minister said in a press note that further action will be taken based on the report. He said that it needed to be checked if there was a violation of captive elephant rules in parading elephants for the temple festival.

V K Venkitachalam, Secretary of the Heritage Animal task force, said that the elephants which ran amok during the festival are frequent troublemakers. "The elephants were rented out by Guruvayur Devaswom. Both the elephants have caused trouble in the past as well. The rules and HC directives call for stringent provisions regarding on-the-spot assessment for fitness certificates and compliance with norms on maintaining distance between elephants, the crowd and the place where crackers are bursting. It will have to be seen if these rules were complied with," said Venkitachalam. The HC bench is likely to consider the petitions on parading elephants for temple festivals on Thursday.

According to Venkitachalam, fatalities are repeatedly being reported from festival venues and in spite of all these incidents, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking to quash the guidelines earlier issued by the High Court. In November 2024, the HC issued a directive to maintain a three-meter distance between elephants during festival parades, and when this directive triggered criticism from temple committees, the bench clarified that it insisted on distance norms to prioritise safety.