A video is being shared on social media claiming it as visuals of a Tiger spotted on Virajpet-Makutta road in Karnataka. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a tiger spotted on Virajpet-Makutta road in Karnataka.
Fact: The tiger in the video was spotted at Valparai hill station located in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu. Raj Mohan, a photographer by profession had shot this video while he and his wife were travelling on a highway in Valparai. Raj Mohan and his wife first shared this video on their social media handles. This video is not from Virajpet-Makutta road in Karnataka. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, a video with similar visuals was found published on the ‘Times Now’ Facebook page on 02 February 2022. The channel reported it as the visuals of a tiger strolling on a highway in Tamil Nadu. Reporting the complete details of this video, the ‘Times Now’ published an article. According to the article, this video was taken at Valparai, a hill station located in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu. This video was reportedly shot by a photographer named Raj Mohan.
Reporting the same, a few other news websites have also published articles on 01 February 2022. They can be seen here and here.
Raj Mohan shared this video on his Twitter handle on 31 January 2022. He mentioned in the tweet that he had shot this video when he and his wife were travelling on a road in Valparai, Tamil Nadu. Rajmohan’s wife Spoorthi had first shared this video on her Instagram handle with a description, “Woke up to this at Valparai!!!! Literally, woke up to a tiger and stopped dead in my tracks for a few seconds when @rajography shouted ‘Tiger Tiger Tiger Tiger’ while I was fast asleep after a disappointing sunrise shoot”.
There are several instances in the past where locals and tourists have spotted tigers near Virajpet taluk in the Kodugu district of Karnataka. But we could not find any recent news reports of a tiger being spotted on Virajpet-Makutta road.
To sum it up, a recent video of a tiger spotted strolling on a road in Tamil Nadu was falsely shared as from Karnataka.
