Fact Check: This picture of a sick elephant is from Thailand, not Tamil Nadu

New Delhi Vishvas News: In a viral post on social media, a sick elephant can be seen with multiple wounds on its body. It is being claimed with the post that this elephant is from Assam which was given on lease to Tamil Nadu and this is its condition now. Vishvas News in its investigation found that this claim is misleading. Yes, it is true that an elephant was sold by Assam to Tamil Nadu and its condition is bad but the elephant seen in the viral picture is not that elephant.

What’s going viral?

A Facebook page named ‘প্ৰেমৰ ‘ shared the post and wrote “Translated: Today is Ganesh Puja Share this post as much as possible #Assamese_elephant_captive_in_Tamil_Nadu_temple Jayamala. The elephant was leased from Assam to Tamil Nadu in 2008 for just six months. The elephant, which has been illegally kept for the last 13 years was caught, was tied and brutally thrashed several times in a temple premises. But the Assam Forest Department is indifferent despite knowing everything.”

The archived version of the post can be viewed here.

Investigation

The viral post mentions Joymala, an elephant from Tamil Nadu. So Vishvas News first searched with keywords. We got many news reports about this elephant. According to the news of news18.com “In a shocking incident of cruelty against animals, an elephant named Joymala was seen screaming after being mercilessly whipped by multiple mahouts incessantly reportedly inside the premises of a temple in Tamil Nadu. The female tusker was found to be owned by someone called Girin Moran from upper Assam’s Tinsukia, who in 2011, sold the elephant to the Tamil Nadu temple through a middleman after necessary approval from the forest department. Now, the elephant is counting her days in captivity at a temple in Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar. People for Ethical Treatment of Animal has been whistleblowing the ordeal of the elephant as it was seen facing unbearable torture at the hand of the mahout.”

we also found a story about elephant Joymata on ndtv.com/. The story states ” An elephant, Joymala, is at the center of a row in Tamil Nadu, where the state government is fighting the claims of animal rights organization PETA that the animal is being subjected to cruelty. The elephant Joymala is “absolutely doing good”, the Tamil Nadu government said, tweeting a 31-second video that it claims was taken on Monday. The video is meant to counter PETA’s video apparently showing the animal in distress..”

We also found a tweet by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in this regard which read “We are against any form of cruelty to animals. Hence, reports of ill-treatment to Joymala, an elephant from Assam, in Tamil Nadu have pained us. . Held a meeting with Forest Dept officials in presence of Environment & Forest Minister Shri @cmpatowary to discuss the matter.”

Now it was certain that tension is going on between Tamil Nadu and Assam government regarding the elephant Joymala. But now we had to know whether the viral picture is of Joymala?

When we did a Google reverse image search of this picture, we found this photo in a news report by National Geographic. According to the news, this picture was of an elephant from Thailand.

we found the same image on euronews.com. This story also projected this image is from Thailand.

After this, we spoke to Heeraj, the media coordinator of PETA India, for confirmation. Heeraj told us that “the viral claim is true but the picture being shared with it is mislaeding. The picture in the viral photo is not of Joymala.”

This post was shared with a false claim by a user named প্ৰেমৰ অনুভূতি. The user has more than 9000 followers.