An old video clip of a leopard pouncing on a man riding a bicycle is made viral with a false claim. People sharing the video, including forest officials and journalists, claim that the incident took place in Uttarakhand.
Verified Twitter user @shekharluthra (Treasurer of @PCITweets, sports journalist) shared the video on September 21, with the caption, “As received by someone… On Dehradun-Rishikesh Highway….” (See the Archived link here.)
It was also shared by another verified user @AjitSinghRathi (Bureau Chief Uttarakhand, @ABPGanga). The tweet in Hindi claims that the incident took place on the Dehradun-Rishikesh Highway. (See the Archived link here.)
Indian Forest Service officer Susanta Nanda (@susantananda3) also shared the video on September 21 with the same claim. (See Archived link.) The video was also shared on Facebook by the same claim. (See Archived link.)
However, EastMojo found that the viral video is an old one and the incident had taken place near the Kaziranga National Park in Assam.
Fact-check:
We fragmented the video into keyframes using the InVid tool and performed a reverse image search on one of its keyframes. This led us to a Youtube link published by ANI News on June 15, 2022.
According to ANI News, the incident took place on the NH37 at Haldibari Animal Corridor in Kaziranga National Park.
“A leopard attacked a cyclist on a National Highway passing through the Kaziranga National Park in Assam. The incident took place at Haldibari Animal Corridor on January 19, 2022. The scene was captured in the CCTV cameras installed by the Kaziranga National Park Authority. However, the cyclist did not suffer any major injury in the attack,” ANI reported.
We ran a relevant keyword search on Google and found several reports linked to the incident. This report published in Money Control on June 16, also confirms that the incident took place in the Kaziranga National Park in Assam and not on the Dehradun-Rishikesh Highway in Uttarakhand.
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