No, New York’s Empire State Building Did Not Pay Tribute to ‘Avni’

The photo of a tiger projected on New York’s Empire State Building is actually from an event 3 years back.

A photo of New York’s Empire State Building with a tiger projected on to its facade has gone viral.

(Photo altered by The Quint)

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CLAIM

A photo of New York’s Empire State Building with the image of a tiger projected onto it has gone viral on social media, with multiple users claiming it to be a tribute to tigress Avni, who was shot dead after being deemed a ‘maneater’.

The tweet appears to have originated from a handle called “Let Avni Live”.

“Empire State Building in New York did this. Why does India not care & kill instead? We have largest population of Bengal tigers in the world. We killed Avni, an endangered animal illegally. Now cubs? Narendra Modi shouldn’t we save our own dharohar? “ the tweet read.

Twitter users were quick to react to the post.

WHAT’S THE TRUTH?

The image is real but it has been used out of context. It is a three-year-old photo from an event called ‘Projecting Change’ that organised by the Oceanic Preservation Society and Obscura Digital.

Held on 18 August 2015, the event aimed to “catalyse a movement to preserve the real treasure of our beautiful planet: its life.”

Images of endangered species from all over the world were projected onto the iconic New York skyscraper in an attempt to raise awareness about the need for wildlife conservation.

And though a Bengal tiger was featured as part of the lineup, it certainly wasn’t ‘Avni’.

Here are some visuals from the event:

Tigress Avni was shot dead by a hunter in Maharashtra earlier this month, triggering an uproar of criticism from wildlife activists and the public. The killing was sanctioned after reports of the tigress killing several people.

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