Authors
A self-taught social media maverick, Saurabh realised the power of social media early on and began following and analysing false narratives and ‘fake news’ even before he entered the field of fact-checking professionally. He is fascinated with the visual medium, technology and politics, and at Newschecker, where he leads social media strategy, he is a jack of all trades. With a burning desire to uncover the truth behind events that capture people's minds and make sense of the facts in the noisy world of social media, he fact checks misinformation in Hindi and English at Newschecker.
Claim
A set of images, along with an audio clip, is being circulated on WhatsApp groups. The clip claims that a group of lions has entered a container at Kattupalli Port in Chennai. The clip appeals to stay safe.
Audio
Verification
We were tagged to fact check this claim on our WhatsApp number. The WhatsApp forward as stated claims that a group of lions has entered a container at Kattupalli Port in Chennai’s Kattupalli. The forward consists of a set of images and an audio clip. The set of images contains 9 images out of which 4 show a lion wandering around containers, one shows a group of lions moving in the backdrop of containers and the remaining 4 suggests that youth was attacked by the same lion. We began to fact check the images from the set one by one.
Fact-Checking the 5 images showing a group of lions wandering around containers:
As we began to check the images of a group of lions wandering around containers, we found that the images are being circulated not just in India but in other countries as well. For instance, a tweet made by a verified news and media portal claimed that the lions are spotted in Kenya after which a Facebook page that goes with the name ‘Kenya Wildlife Service’ and addresses itself as a Government Organization has posted a clarification on this issue. The Facebook post reads, “We have noted the online circulation of false reports and pictures of a lioness and cubs sighted at the Inland Container Depot (ICDC) near Nairobi National Park. We have since established that the pictures and reports were taken in India and not in #Kenya as reported. We are therefore informing the public to disregard the images and reports. For emergency, support calls our toll free number on 0800 597000.”
Similarly, We also found a tweet by Dennis Itumbi who is a journalist. Dennis’ tweet has called out a Kenya-based media outlet namely ‘The Standard Digital’ for spreading misinformation.
Once again, @StandardKenya LIES about a stray lion at the ICD in Nairobi. They even watermarked the pictures. #SystemYaFacts shows it is Gujarat, India. Mistakes happen in publishing, just pointing out the hypocrisy of the Standard when it is bloggers making similar mistakes. pic.twitter.com/5y7PlfUalX
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) February 13, 2020
We also found a report published by an Egyptian website that clarifies that the viral images of a lion wandering around containers at a port do not belong to an Egyptian port namely ‘Alexandria Port’ as similar images have gone viral in Egypt as well.
In Pics: Know Truth Behind Wandering Lions in Alex Port – Sada El balad
Reda Ghandour, Alexandria Port Authority spokesman denied what has been circulated via social media platforms “Facebook”
Since, the Facebook post made by Kenya Wildlife Service suggests that the images belong to India, we customized our search process and began our investigation on viral images.
As we reverse search one of the images, we found a tweet by Dhanraj Nathwani who is vice president of Gujarat Cricket Association. In his tweet, Nathwani demands the tracking and monitoring of lion population in revenue areas of Gujarat’s Gir forest.
These pictures from #pipavaport,#Rajula, #Gujarat showcase an impending human-animal conflict dangerous for both the #lions & the workers at the port. Lion population in revenue areas of #Gir should be tracked & monitored! @ParveenKaswan @susantananda3 https://t.co/2tazHSJMmi pic.twitter.com/3DxCdqskXO
— Dhanraj Nathwani (@DhanrajNathwani) February 12, 2020
When we searched further, we found a report published by Times Of India that suggests that on February 11, 2020, workers of Port Pipavav’s railway yard in Rajkot spotted lions moving in the backdrop of containers.
Lion pride strolls in Port Pipavav’s railway yard | Rajkot News – Times of India
Video grab of lions moving in the backdrop of containers on Tuesday Rajkot: Workers at Port Pipavav, managed by APM Terminals, are a scared lot these days. While lions are frequently spotted on the road towards the port, the wild cats are now seen strolling around the jetty and railway yard where big containers are stacked.
After reading the report published by Times Of India, we continued our investigation for more information. During our search, we also found a report published by news outlet ‘Patrika’ that backs the Times of India report.
बंदरगाह देखने पूरी पलटन लेकर पहुंचा शेर, रिहायशी इलाके में जंगल के राजा को देख लोगों के उड़े होश
Lion Spotted : शेर-शेरनी समेत दो बच्चे साथ आए नजर अमरेली के पास पीपीवाव पोर्ट पर खुलेआम टहलते हुए दिखाई दिया शेरों का झुंड नई दिल्ली। जंगल के राजा शेर (lion) को देखते ही लोग गश खाकर गिर पड़ते हैं। ऐसे में अगर उनका पूरा परिवार ही आपकी आंखों के
We further searched YouTube for more information and we found multiple videos that support the report published by Times Of India and Partrika.
We also have many similar videos in which lions can be seen moving around Port Pipavav.
We also found a YouTube channel namely ‘GirIndiaFilms HD’ that uploads many such videos.
Hence it is evident from our posts that the viral images in which group of lions can be seen moving in the backdrop of containers do not belong to Chennai’s Kattupalli port but Gujarat’s Port Pipavav.
Now, we tried searching the remaining 4 images in the WhatsApp forward in which youth can be seen lying wounded, his right arm can also be seen severely injured. We first performed reverse image search but we didn’t find any authentic information to corroborate. Then we searched further and found a report published by a website that contains both lions’ and injured youth’s images. The report claims that the lions were spotted in Chennai which has been found to be ‘Misleading’ in our investigation above.
கண்டெய்னர் வழியா துறைமுகத்துக்குள்ள சிங்கம் வந்து… ஒருத்தன கடிச்சு குதறிடிச்சுன்னு கத வுட்டீங்களேய்யா?!
கடந்த சில நாட்களாக வாட்ஸ் அப் உள்ளிட்ட சமூகத் தளங்களில் துறைமுகத்துக்குள் சிங்கங்கள் புகுந்து அங்கிருந்தவரைக் கடித்துக் குதறியாக படங்கள் பகிரப்பட்டு வந்தன. இது பலருக்கும் அதிர்ச்சியையும் அச்சத்தையும் ஏற்படுத்தியது. இந்நிலையில் இது சமூக விரோதிகளின் செயல் என்று விளக்கம் அளித்துள்ளது காவல்துறை. சென்னை காட்டுப்பள்ளி துறைமுகத்திற்குள் வெளிநாட்டு கண்டெய்னர் வழியாக சிங்கங்கள் வந்தன என்று வாட்ஸ் ஆப் வாயிலாக பரப்பப்படும் செய்தி வெறும் வதந்தியே என காவல் துறையினர் தெரிவித்துள்ளனர்.
We searched for more information on people killed by lions in Gujarat’s Port Pipavav but media reports didn’t suggest any such causality in the current and past month.
We are still searching for more information on these viral images. We will update our article as soon as we get any authentic information. However, this is established in our fact check that the claim of a group of lions spotted moving at Chennai’s Kattupalli Port is ‘Misleading’ as they were moving in the backdrop of containers at Port Pipavav in Gujarat.
Sources
- Google Search
- Reverse Image Search
Result: Misleading
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Authors
A self-taught social media maverick, Saurabh realised the power of social media early on and began following and analysing false narratives and ‘fake news’ even before he entered the field of fact-checking professionally. He is fascinated with the visual medium, technology and politics, and at Newschecker, where he leads social media strategy, he is a jack of all trades. With a burning desire to uncover the truth behind events that capture people's minds and make sense of the facts in the noisy world of social media, he fact checks misinformation in Hindi and English at Newschecker.
