Old image of dead birds in Bihar is falsely linked to 5G trials in India - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 7, 2021
An image is being shared on social media claiming that hundreds of birds were found dead after Indian telecom companies started 5G testing in India. This photo shows hundreds of dead birds on the ground. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Image showing hundreds of birds that died recently because of the 5G testing in India.
Fact: The photo shared in the post is related to an old incident in Bihar. The birds in the photo died after consuming the seeds that contained a high dosage of pesticides. This incident reportedly took place in 2009. This photo has nothing to do with 5G testing in India. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar photo was found to be shared by multiple social media users in 2016. They can be seen here and here. These posts claim that thousands of birds have died because of sunstroke in Chennai.
In April 2016, ‘The News Minute’ published an article, clarifying the details of this photo showing the hundreds of dead birds. In the article, it is clarified that the image is not related to Chennai. Shravan Krishnan, an official from Chennai Wildlife Rescuers has informed media that the image is related to a seven-year-old incident in Bihar. Adding to that, Shravan Krishnan clarified that birds in the image died after consuming the seeds that contain a high dosage of pesticides.
The Department of Telecommunications (DOT) has recently approved the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) applications for conducting the 5G technology trials in India. The applicant TSPs include Bharti Airtel Ltd, Reliance Jio, Vodafone, Idea Ltd, and MTNL. News articles reporting this information can be seen here and here.
Earlier, when similar posts about birds getting killed by the 5G testing shared on social media, FACTLY published fact-check articles debunking them. They can be read here and here.
To sum it up, this image showing hundreds of dead birds on the ground is related to an old incident in Bihar and has nothing to do with 5G technology trials in India.