Fact Check: Viral video of an elephant attacking a van with tourists is not from Andhra Pradesh
Fact Check: Viral video of an elephant attacking a van with tourists is not from Andhra Pradesh
A video of an elephant violently attacking a vehicle with tourists inside, is in circulation with a claim that this incident took place on the Palamaner- Gudiyattam road in Andhra Pradesh. Palamaner is a town in Andhra Pradesh, while Gudiyattam is in Tamil Nadu.
Herds of elephants are commonly sighted near the Kuppam-Palamaner belt close to Andhra Pradesh- Karnataka- Tamil Nadu border. There are a few instances where the wild elephants scared commuters by standing still on the road, early in the morning. After a series of reports like this, the video showing an elephant attacking has gone viral with a claim in Telugu that reads “పలమనేరు గుడియాత్తం రోడ్డు లో ఈరోజు మధ్యాహ్నం మూడు గంటల సమయంలో ఒంటరి ఏనుగు హల్ చల్....”
When translated, it claims “An elephant wreaked havoc on Palamaneru-Gudiyattam road at three o'clock in the afternoon”
In the video, the elephant is seen violently shaking a white van with its trunk. Later, it is seen checking the inside of the van using its trunk. The people inside the van are seen running away from the vehicle. After the pachyderm leaving the place, the passengers get into the van.
Fact Check:
The claim is false. The incident seen in the video did not occur on Palamaner- Gudiyattam road.
When the key frames extracted from the video were searched using Google reverse image search, we found a YouTube channel which shared the video with better resolution. The YouTube channel named Lankasri News published this video on January 4, 2023, with the title in Tamil “யானைக்கு உணவு வழங்கியவர்களுக்
When translated, it states “Good luck to those who gave food to the elephant! Heart touching scenes!”. Though the video does not tell where the incident took place, the description of the channel suggests that it belongs to Sri Lanka and covers news from Sri Lanka in Tamil. In the video, we can clearly see the logo ‘Holiday Srilanka’ on the van.
Found a tweet by NewswireLK which shared the video with the caption ‘Near escape as Van attacked by Elephant on SL road WATCH : https://bit.ly/3CJf2Uf
According to a report in newsflare.com, the incident took place in Ala National Park in Moneragala, Sri Lanka on January 1, 2023.
Therefore, the video of elephant attacking passengers in a van is from Sri Lanka and not Andhra Pradesh. The claim is false.