Fact Check: Leopard Seen With Villagers In Viral Video Suffering From Neurological Disorder, Wasn’t Drunk

New Delhi Vishvas News – A video of a leopard is going viral on social media where some people are seen walking next to the leopard. The animal can be seen moving slowly without causing any harm to humans. Some users on social media shared the video claiming that it is from Taragarh village, where the leopard had consumed raw liquor due to which he became lethargic. This video is also quite viral on YouTube Shorts.

Vishvas News investigated the viral post. The claim proved to be fake. Actually, this video is from Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh. This leopard was acting like this due to a neurological disorder.

What Is Going Viral

Facebook user Sonu Singh posted a video on his account on September 4, claiming, “The leopard in village Taragarh drank raw alcohol from the distillery and forgot that it is a lion. And a man becomes a leopard after drinking alcohol.”

The content of the post can be read here as it is. The post was shared widely as many people believed it to be true. View the archived version of the post here.

Investigation

Vishvas News used reverse image search to find the original source of the viral video. First several keyframes were extracted from the video with the help of the Invid tool, then the search was done.

In search, we found a similar video uploaded on several news websites and social media accounts. The video was found uploaded on the YouTube channel of a news channel named Republic Bharat, which has been shared on 30 August.

According to the given information, “A strange case has come to light from Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh. Here the villagers surrounded a leopard and started playing with it. You have rarely seen such a calm leopard. This case is related to Pipalrawan police station of Tonkkhurd tehsil of Dewas district, where there was a crowd of people taking selfies with a sick leopard.’

During the search, news was also found on Naiduniya.com. According to the information given in this news published on September 4, “The concerns of Kamla Nehru Zoological Museum of Indore have increased after confirmation of canine distemper infection in a sick leopard in Iklera village of Dewas. To save the rest of the animals from infection, the leopard was shifted from the zoo to another place. On Sunday, the team of Dewas Forest Department took the leopard back. Now the leopard will be kept at such a place where other wild animals do not come in contact with it. Forest officials said the Sonkach forest area was better for isolation, where veterinarians and forest workers can monitor it. In the medical report of blood-saliva and excreta-urine, the leopard was declared infected with canine distemper. The virus affected the brain a lot. Due to neurological disorder, the leopard has lost its aggressive nature and memory.” Read the full news here.

In social media search, we found this video shared by the official X handle of NDTV, in which information about the incident has been given. This post was uploaded on August 30, 2023.

Vishvas News contacted Indore Zoo in-charge Uttam Yadav. He said, “The viral post is wrong. This video is from Iklera village of Dewas. This leopard is infected with canine distemper. This is a viral disease and the virus of this disease has affected the leopard’s brain. He has forgotten aggression due to neurological disorder. That is why the leopard did not attack the villagers.”