Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Claim
Villagers harass leopard intoxicated after drinking brew from a distillery.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “leopard drunk India”, which led us to this NDTV report, dated August 30, 2023, sharing another angle of the incident and headlined, “Sick Leopard Wanders Into Madhya Pradesh Village, This Happens Next”. The report stated that a shocking video of villagers from Madhya Pradesh’s Iklera abusing and harassing a leopard has emerged online.
A relevant keyword search led us to multiple news reports about the incident, seen here, here and here, reiterating that the leopard, which was rescued from Iklera village, about 80 km from Indore, was critically ill. None of the reports state that the leopard was intoxicated and had entered a distillery.
“After the incident came to light, the leopard was rescued by forest officials and taken to a zoo in Indore city. According to forest officials, the big cat suffers from a brain disorder and is in critical condition, battling for his life,” stated an HT report, dated August 31, 2023, further quoting Dr Uttam Yadav, in-charge of Indore’s Kamla Nehru Zoo, who said, “The seriously-ill leopard’s body is stiffening and the animal is getting seizure attacks around every 20 minutes. Prima facie, the animal is suffering from some brain disorder.”
We also came across this AFP report on the false claims, dated September 15, 2023, quoting a local deputy forest range officer who said the leopard was ill and primary symptoms observed during treatment were neurological, while Yadav said the leopard’s condition was improving, which disproves the viral claim of the leopard being intoxicated.
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Result: False
Sources
NDTV report, August 30, 2023
Hindustan Times report, August 31, 2023
AFP report, September 15, 2023
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
