Fact Check: Viral video makes false claim about recent spotting of a tiger in Warangal district
The Warangal forest department has raised high alert in the Rudragudem forest area after pug marks were found in the
The Warangal forest department has raised high alert in the Rudragudem forest area after pug marks were found in the Rudragudem village on the outskirts of Nallabelly mandal of Warangal district. The villagers noticed the pug marks and notified the local police and forest officials who rushed to the spot and confirmed they belonged to the tiger. Nallabelly forest range officer told the media representatives that the staff identified fresh pugmarks of the tiger. Also, the tiger had prowled on the outskirts of Rudragudem village and probably migrated from Mulugu district. It is also suspected that the tiger moved towards the Konapur and Ootai forest areas in Kothaguda mandal of Mahabubabad district. The FRO said that 15 forest staff members were on the field, tracking the movement of the big cat in the forest area. Meanwhile, the surrounding villages have been alerted and residents warned not to venture alone into the forest area. Shepherds too have been told not to go deep into the forest for grazing cattle, he added.
Amidst all this, a video showing a tiger strolling around between the trees is in circulation on social media with the claim that it shows the Tiger roaming in the Nallabelly forest area in Warangal. The video is in circulation on YouTube, X, and also Facebook with captions like “నల్లబెల్లి మండలం లో పెద్దపులి
“వరంగల్ జిల్లా నర్సంపేట మండలం
"నల్లబెల్లి మండలం రుద్రగూడెం కా
The video has been in circulation with many different claims that the tiger was spotted in different areas of the country.
Here are the archive link of the claim.
Fact Check:
The claim is False. The video has been online since the year 2020. When we extracted keyframes from the viral video and searched using Google reverse image search, we found videos and news reports confirming that the video has been online since the year 2020.
We found a YouTube channel named Official Rajendra Boy with the caption ‘silwani ke jungle mein paya gaya sher’. When translated, it states: ‘Tiger was found in the forest area of Silwani’. The video was published on December 6, 2021.
Uttarakhand Samachar shared the screenshots from the viral video stating that a tiger was spotted in the Ramgarh forest range.
A YouTube channel named Somesh Singh Thakur shared a longer video showing the same viral video stating that it is from Bastar forest. This video was shared on November 28, 2020.
Even though there is no proper conclusion on the place where this video was taken, the video definitely does not show the recent appearance of Tiger in Nallabelly mandal in Warangal district. The claim is False.