Vishvas News investigated and found the claim to be false. In fact, the snake is not a real snake, but a robotic snake.
New Delhi (Vishvas News): A video going viral on social media claims that every year during the rains, a 15 feet snake gets wrapped around the Buddha statue. Vishvas News investigated and found the claim to be false. In fact, the snake is not a real snake, but a robotic snake.
In the viral video, a snake can be seen clinging to a Buddha statue. The post reads, “Every year here in the rain a 15 feet snake covers the statue of Lord Buddha. Watch this video to believe its truth.”
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
We searched the keyframes of the video using Google reverse image search. We found the viral video uploaded on the youtube channel Sangha TV on May 13, 2017. The viral video was a bit blurry but it was clearly visible here. On watching this video properly, it could be seen that the snake in the video is not moving by itself, but seems that either someone is pushing it from behind or it is running intermittently with the battery. Along with this, a red light can be seen flashing in the eyes of this snake at many places, which is not the case with the real snake.
One of the comments of this video read: “Its a budhist temple in sri lanka , man made robotic snake for tourist attraction… you have to buy tickets to view this nice and beautiful scenery. “
Taking a hint from here, we did an open keyword search on Google. We found the same video uploaded in 2017 on a YouTube channel named Knowledge, News & Fun. The description of the video read, “A boy from Sri Lanka uses robotic technology to make Muchlinda Cobra”.
We found some more similar videos which according to the description are Robotic Snakes.
Kumar Mankarne, the digital editor of a Sri Lankan newspaper The Island, told us, “It is a robotic snake. According to belief, Mukalinda, Muchalinda, or Musilinda is the name of a serpent who protected Gautama Buddha after the Enlightenment. To show this belief, such events are organized at many places in Sri Lanka, where a robotic snake plays the role of Mukalinda.
The post is shared on Facebook by a user named Vikas Pawar. Social scanning of the user revealed that the user has 101,627 followers on Facebook.
Conclusion: Vishvas News investigated and found the claim to be false. In fact, the snake is not a real snake, but a robotic snake.
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