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| - Fact Check: Video of elephant attacking van is NOT from Kerala, but from Sri Lanka
AFWA found that this video is not from Kerala, or from India at all. This video is from Sri Lanka.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is from the Monaragala district of Sri Lanka where an elephant attacked a van in search of food.
Just a day after the forest authority captured an elephant in Kerala’s Wayanad on January 9, a video of an elephant wreaking havoc in the middle of a road started making the rounds on social media. The video featured a tusker, wandering on a road, allegedly somewhere near a forest area in Kerala.
A few seconds into the video, a van could be seen approaching the elephant. People could be seen throwing something from the inside of the van at the giant. The elephant then attacked the van and attempted to overturn it. Scared, the people started escaping the vehicle while the elephant continued to attack. As more people arrived, the elephant retreated to the forest.
This video was shared by Porinju Veliyath, an investor and fund manager, who wrote, “Wild animals in Kerala are confused. Shrinking natural habitat. Shortage of food.” Another person who shared the video wrote, “We Indians don’t even wait for fellow humans to cross the road, why will we wait for an animal.”
Zee News, on the other hand, shared the same video on January 9, reporting it to be from Palamaneru road in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor. Archives of such posts can be found here and here.
AFWA found that this video is not from Kerala, or from India at all. This video is from Sri Lanka.
AFWA Probe
A reverse search of keyframes from the viral video led us to the same video shared on the YouTube channel of Lankasri News, a Sri Lankan news website. In this video, “Holiday Sri Lanka” can be seen written on the back of the van being attacked by the tusker.
We found other extended versions of this video showing multiple vehicles passing by, offering food to the elephant that later attacked a van carrying men, women, and even small kids. These videos, too, mentioned this was from Sri Lanka. This suggested that the video might not be from Kerala after all.
Further, we found a news report featuring the same video. The report said the incident that took place in Sri Lanka, where an elephant attacked a van full of people in search of food. The incident took place in Monaragala, a town located in the Monaragala district of the Uva Province. Another report mentioned that the incident took place on January 1, 2023, adding that it happened on a road leading to the Yala National Park, a huge area of forest, grassland, and lagoons bordering the Indian Ocean, in southeastern Sri Lanka. Situated in the Uva province, Yala is the second largest national park in the country and home to wildlife such as leopards, elephants, and crocodiles, as well as hundreds of bird species.
The people attacked in the incident were reportedly trying to feed the elephant. No one was injured in the incident. Following the attack, the Department of Wildlife and Conservation Director General reportedly instructed his officials to arrest those who fed wild animals, particularly elephants. Moreover, the Yala Forest Site Officers were deployed to drive away wild elephants straying on the Buttala-Kataragama road to prevent such accidents.
(Written by Sanjana Saxena)
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