Fact Check: Video Of Elephants From West Bengal Going Viral With Misleading Claim

New Delhi Vishvas News – A video is going viral on social media where two men can be seen fleeing for their lives as an elephant herd turns up in front of them. In the video, the two men could be seen falling off their bike as elephants approach them. The men abandon the bike and run away in order to save their lives.

Sharing the video, users claimed that the incident took place on Sitavani road in Ramnagar town of Nainital district, Uttarakhand. Vishvas News in its investigation found that this video of a herd of elephants coming on the road is from Siliguri in West Bengal. The incident is about a month old, not recent.

What Is Going Viral?

Facebook user ‘News Today Network‘ (archived link) posted the video on June 13, with the caption: “Suddenly a herd of elephants came on the road on Sitavani Road in Ramnagar, Nainital on Friday afternoon. At the same time, two people riding a bike also reached in front of the herd of elephants. Seeing the elephants, the bike driver panicked and the bike fell down. He somehow saved his life by running away from there. The elephants also crossed the road walking straight on their way without looking at the bike. Someone present there made this video. Which is now going viral on social media.”

ABP News (archived link) has also shared the video attributing it to Nainital.

This video (archive link) has also been uploaded on the YouTube channel of News 18, claiming that it is from Nainital.

This video (archived link) can also be seen shared on the Facebook page of Uttarakhand Tak with the same claim.

https://youtu.be/_Tek0Hcqz4k

Vishvas News Investigation:

To investigate the viral claim, we first searched it on Google with keywords. Twitter user Ajit Singh Rathi (archive link) also tweeted this video on June 10 and attributed it to Nainital. In response to this, some users have said the video is from West Bengal.

हाथियों के झुंड से बाल बाल बचे मोटरसाइकिल सवार
यह घटना रामनगर से सीतावनी रोड की है।
शुक्रवार दोपहर अचानक आये हाथियों के झुंड को देखकर बाइक सवार दो लोग गिर गये और भागकर जान बचाई। pic.twitter.com/DLNWKsYIBD

— Ajit Singh Rathi (@AjitSinghRathi) June 10, 2023

In a Google search, we also found a link to a news article published by India Today on May 17, 2023. According to the report, “A video from North Bengal’s Siliguri has gone viral on social media for a scary reason. People were in their bikes and cars driving down a street in Sukna, a village in North Bengal, when a herd of elephants emerged out of nowhere. They were crossing the road when these bikers were caught in the middle of the hullabaloo. The video shows the bikers narrowly escaping being trampled by these giants. While the elephants did not attack them, had they arrived late by even a fraction of second, they could have been trampled by the gigantic animals.”

On May 17, 2023, similar news was also published in the Bengali language news portal Eisamay.com. A rough translation of the news reads, “The video is from near Sukna village in Siliguri, where elephants frequently cross the region. On Tuesday afternoon, a herd of elephants was crossing the road as they emerged from the Sukna forest. This area is known as the Elephant Corridor. Upon seeing the elephants, cars on both sides of the road stopped, but two people riding a bike proceeded forward. Subsequently, both individuals fell in front of the herd of elephants. They abandoned the bike and fled. Later, the herd of elephants entered the forest. An eyewitness captured a video of the incident. Forest officials of the Karshiang division stated that the area between Sukna and Madhuban forest is known as the Aggorai Elephant Corridor, where elephants frequently venture out. Everyone should exercise caution.”

For more information about this, we spoke to Trilok Rawat, a reporter from Dainik Jagran in Ramnagar. He said, “This video is not from the Sitavani zone of Ramnagar. No such incident has occurred in the recent past. I spoke to forest department officers regarding this matter, and they have also said that the video is not from Nainital.”

In the final phase of the investigation, we examined the profile of the Facebook user ‘News Today Network,’ who shared the video with a misleading claim. This page was created on August 31, 2020, and has approximately 358 followers.

Conclusion: The video depicting two bike riders falling due to a herd of elephants on the road is not from Nainital. It is nearly a month-old video and is being shared with a misleading claim.

Tags

• elephant
• Fact Check
• fake news