Fact Check: This picture of pink elephant is edited

New Delhi (Vishvas News). A picture is going viral on social media, in which a pink-colored elephant can be seen. It is being claimed in the post that it is a real pink elephant and it is found in India. Vishvas News in its investigation found that this claim is false. The pink color on this elephant’s photo was put with the help of digital tools.

What’s in the viral post?

A Facebook user (archive link) named Hrithik Malhotra shared this post. The text on the picture read “Pink elephants can be found in some regions of India. Because of the red soil, elephants take on a permanent pink color because they spray dust over their bodies to protect themselves from insects.”

Investigation

To check this post, we did a reverse image search of this picture. We found this photo on baixaki.com.br. But the elephant in this picture was of brown color, not pink. According to the post, this picture was uploaded by Carlos ET Barreiroso on October 14, 2005. The similarity between the two can be seen in the collage below.

We contacted Krishna Das, the Forest Officer working in the Kerala Forest Department in this regard. He has a special interest in elephants. He told us that pink elephants are not found in India. The viral picture is clearly edited. However, some elephant cubs may be pale pink in color due to certain genetic disorders. But the elephants of the color seen in the viral picture do not exist.

We also spoke to Uma Ganguly, former Professor of Zoology at Delhi University’s Gargi College, about this. She also told that “the color of the skin cannot be changed permanently by putting mud on the body. The elephant in the viral picture is not real.”

This picture was shared by a Facebook user named Hrithik Malhotra with the wrong claim. According to the profile, the user lives in Delhi.