Fact Check: Viral video showing an elephant dancing to drumbeats is a hoax

Elephants form an integral part of the South Indian Hindu festivals, mostly in Kerala. Kerala has maintained an atmosphere of religious harmony and inter-religious co-operation over centuries. Of the thousands of festivals in Kerala where an elephant parade is an important feature, Pooram Gajamela is the most enchanting. Nowadays, the practice of parade is gradually fading away due to many mishappenings during the festivals.

Recently, a video has been popular on social media showing an elephant dancing in a procession. A few social media users are sharing it with different captions.

Not just social media users, even several news channels also published the same video on their respective websites. However, none of the reports mentioned that it is not an actual elephant.

Hindi News 24 : जब बजने लगा डोल खुद नहीं रोक पाए हाथी राजा, लगाए जबरदस्त ठुमके, देखें

TV 9 Hindi :   Elephant Dance Video Goes Viral on Social Media

Fact Check:

On performing a Google reverse image search of a key frame, we found a similar video shot from a different camera angle & uploaded on Facebook with a Malayalam tagline. “ ഇത്രയും ധൈര്യമുള്ള പാപ്പാനെ നിങ്ങൾ ജീവിതത്തിൽ കണ്ടിട്ടുണ്ടാവില്ല. ഞാൻ ഗ്യാരണ്ടി “

When translated, it reads: “We found You have never seen such a brave papa in your life. I guarantee “.

In the video, it is clearly visible that the elephant legs are looking quite unnatural, both the front and back legs are not moving properly even when both the pairs of front and back legs are properly dancing to the drum beats.

This reveals the fact that the elephant is not real but humans are involved in depicting an elephant. So it is sure that some persons are involved in the elephant dancing performance. We also found a banner where it has been written “Elevenz”, when we search it on Google, we found an Instagram account of a Social Club who uploaded the video by tagging anil.arts where we found several images of this elephant costumes. Even actor Jayarm and Ramesh Pishrody also had displayed the picture in a reality show.

According to a report published in News App Inshort “Fake elephant dance video misreported by Indian News”

As per Youturn English, it is a costume worn by humans.

Conclusion: As per our fact check from different sources & media reports we found this is not a real elephant but a human inside the apparel, dancing to the drumbeat.