A post is being shared on social media claiming that a village in Tamil Nadu went without electricity for 35 days to protect the hatchlings of a bird that had turned the village’s community switchboard into its nest. The post claims that the villagers deliberately shut off all the electricity in their village out of concern that the heat produced by it might harm the eggs in the bird’s nest. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: A village in Tamil Nadu went without electricity for 35 days to safeguard a bird’s nest and its hatchlings.
Fact: In 2020, the people in Pothakudi village in Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga district voluntarily shut off the streetlights in their village for 35 days to safeguard the eggs of a female oriental magpie robin that used the village’s electricity board control box as its nest. Only the control switch that powers the 35 streetlights in the village was turned off for the sake of the three eggs nestled in the bird’s nest. The village did not experience a complete power outage during those 35 days to protect a bird’s nest. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post and by searching with relevant keywords, we found an article published by ‘The Hindu’ reporting a similar incident that took place at a village in Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga district in 2020. The article reported that the Pothakudi village in Sivaganga district went without streetlights for 35 days to safeguard the eggs of a female oriental magpie robin that used the village’s electricity board control box as its nest.
According to the article, the people of Pothakudi village had voluntarily decided to refrain from using streetlights for 35 days to protect the three eggs nestled in the bird’s nest. The robin had constructed its nest deep within the electricity box, and each attempt to access the controls reportedly startled the mother bird. Feeling that it was best to leave the mother undisturbed during the incubation period, Karuppu Raja, a villager who volunteers to turn on the main control switch of 35 streetlights after the dusk falls, convinced the villagers to keep the streetlights turned off for 35 nights.
A few other news reports published about this incident in 2020 can be seen here and here. Only the control switch that powers the 35 streetlights was turned off for 35 days for the sake of a bird’s nest. The village did not experience a complete power outage during those 35 days to protect a bird’s nest.
To sum it up, the Pothakudi village in Tamil Nadu shut off only the streetlights for 35 days to save the bird’s nest.
