On 3 April 2025, the Supreme Court of India ordered a stay (here, here and here) on the tree felling activities being carried out by the Telangana government within the 400 acres of the Kancha Gachibowli region adjacent to the University of Hyderabad. As per the reports (here, here, and here), this region is home to several species of flora and fauna, which include migratory birds, peacocks, wild animals like spotted deer, wild boars, Indian rock python, Indian star tortoises, etc. As per news reports from April 2025, two deer in this region died (here, here, here, here, and here) in the aftermath of the Telangana government clearing the land in question.
As reports emerge that the wildlife at the University of Hyderabad got disrupted due to the clearing of trees in the Kancha Gachibowli region, a video of lions roaming on the roads is being shared on social media. It is being shared with a caption translated into English, which says, ‘Telangana forest has been completely destroyed, animals’ habitat is now roads and settlements 🙌💯.’ A few users are sharing it with a caption that says ‘#Kancha Gachibowli #forest…’ We will fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: Visuals of Lions roaming on the streets of Hyderabad, Telangana after the tree felling activities in Kancha Gachibowli.
Fact: This video was filmed in Gujarat in November 2024 and has nothing to do with Hyderabad and Telangana. Hence, the claim made in the post is Fasle.
To check the veracity of the viral claim, we performed a reverse image search on a few of its keyframes. This search led us to an Instagram post (archive link) from 8 November 2024, which is an extended version of the viral video. This post contained a hashtag that says #girforest, suggesting it is from Gujarat, where the Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary is located.
Taking this as a hint, we ran a keyword search on the internet and found several news reports (here, here, here, and here) about this video from November 2024. As per these reports, this incident happened near the Bajrang petrol pump located near the Rajula-Gir Somnath National Highway. As per a news report published by Divya Bhaskar, this video was recorded in Kovaya, near Rajula, Gujarat.
While verifying the video, we observed Gujarati text on the wall in front of the petrol bunk seen in the video. This translated to English reads, ‘Bajrang Sale of petrol and Diesel.’
We then geo-located Bajrang petrol pump located near Kovaya, Gujarat, on Google Maps. The satellite view shows the huge transmission tower and a small building next to the petrol station, as seen in the viral video. Even the fuel dispensers in the photos of this petrol station look the same as seen in the viral video. This makes it clear that the viral video has nothing to do with Kancha Gachibowli, Telangana, and it is actually from Gujarat.
To sum up, an old and unrelated video of Lions roaming on roads in Gujarat is falsely linked to Telangana.
