The Telangana government has decided to allocate 400 acres in Survey No. 25 of Kancha Gachibowli, near Hyderabad Central University (HCU) (also known as the University of Hyderabad), for various projects through the Telangana Government Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC). While students allege that the government is trying to auction university land, the state government officials said the land belongs to the Telangana Government. On 30 March 2025, land-levelling work began with JCBs, prompting protests from HCU students, environmentalists, and opposition parties, who argue the area is home to wildlife like deer, peacocks, turtles, and birds. In response, the Supreme Court, on 3 April 2025, ordered a halt to tree-felling on the site and directed the state’s chief secretary to ensure compliance while also asking the Telangana High Court Registrar to inspect the area and submit a report. A deer was reportedly killed after being attacked by stray dogs near the University of Hyderabad’s south campus hostel, and another strayed into a nearby residential locality. Security personnel rescued the animal and took it to a veterinary hospital for treatment. In this context, a video (here, here, and here) showing a massive herd of elephants crossing a road is being circulated on social media, claiming that the elephants are leaving HCU. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Massive herd of elephants crossing a road during the tree felling drive at Hyderabad Central University.
Fact: The video shows a herd of elephants crossing a road in the Ampara district of Sri Lanka. Moreover, there were no reports of the presence of elephants in Hyderabad Central University. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A reverse image search of the viral video led us to multiple posts (here, here, and here) by Sri Lanka-based users from February 2025, stating that the visuals are from the Ampara district of Sri Lanka. Building on this, we conducted a deeper search and found additional footage of the same incident, said to be from the Sammanthurai area within the Ampara district.
Taking a cue from this, we were able to geolocate the viral video. A comparison between the visuals from Google Street View and the viral footage confirmed that the location is indeed in Sri Lanka and not Hyderabad, India.
Additionally, there were no reports of elephants being present on the land allocated to the University of Hyderabad (HCU). The preliminary report submitted by the Registrar (Judiciary) of the Telangana High Court to the Supreme Court also made no mention of elephants in the affected area, only referencing peacocks, deer and birds.
To sum up, an unrelated video from Sri Lanka was falsely shared as a massive herd of elephants leaving HCU in Hyderabad.
