A video showing several men following and bothering a leopard in a forest is going viral on social media.
What's the claim?: The claim states that the wild cat was 'intoxicated'.
An archive can be seen here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)
What's the truth?: The viral claim is false.
The leopard was sick and not intoxicated.
The video is from Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh, and the leopard was later rescued and taken to Kamla Nehru Zoo in Indore.
The zoo curator told The Quint that the big cat is under supervision and diagnosed with canine distemper.
How did we find out the truth?: We performed a relevant keyword search on Google and found a report by The Times of India posted on 31 August.
The report carried a screengrab from the viral video and mentioned that the villagers from Dewas, Madhya Pradesh abused a weak and sick leopard in the forest and also tried to take selfies with it.
It added that the leopard was found roaming in Iklera village on 29 August.
The article also stated that the leopard was rescued by Forest teams from Ujjain and Dewas and then transferred it to Indore's zoo.
The article is from 31 August 2023.
(Source: TOI/Screenshot)
News agency The Press Trust of India also posted a byte of Forest Guide official who stated that a team from Ujjain and Indore will be reaching Iklera to rescue the leopard.
We also contacted Indore's zoo: We reached out to Kamla Nehru Zoo who told us that the leopard is suffering from canine distemper.
Canine distemper is caused by a contagious virus and affects the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and nervous systems of animals.
They added that they are trying to keep the leopard's temperature down since only preventive medicine is the solution now.
We spoke to a local reporter: We contacted Antriksh Singh, a local reporter from Madhya Pradesh confirmed to us that the leopard is still alive at the Indore zoo.
Conclusion: A video of a sick leopard being abused in Madhya Pradesh's forest is being shared with a misleading context about the animal being intoxicated.
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