A video is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows birds doing pradakshina (or parikrama) around the Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain. In the post, it is written that the birds do such pradkshina around the temple every year on the day of Maha Shivratri. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of birds doing pradakshina around the Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain. It happens every year on the day of Maha Shivratri.
Fact: The ‘News 18’ team have found that the flying of birds in flocks around the Ujjain Mahakaleshwar temple is a regular phenomenon. It has no connection with Maha Shivratri. The scientific reason behind such movement of birds is called ‘Murmuration’. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When we searched about the posted video on the internet, an article published by ‘News18 – Hindi’ on the video was found in the search results. In the article, it can be read that the ‘News18’ team went to the location in the posted video to confirm the authenticity of the video. In their investigation, it was found that the flying of birds in flocks around the Ujjain Mahakaleshwar temple is a regular phenomenon. It does not happen only on the day of Maha Shivratri every year.
Many similar videos of birds flying around the premises of Mahakaleshwar temple can be watched here, here, and here.
Sanjeev Sanyal, an author of several books on India, has tweeted in 2019 that the phenomenon of birds in the video is called ‘Murmuration’. The ‘News18 – Hindi’ article also mentions the same scientific reason for the flying of birds in flocks in the video. Murmuration means – ‘a large group of birds, usually starlings, that all fly together and change direction together’. The BBC video on ‘How do starling birds flock?’ can be watched here.
To sum it up, the video of birds flying around the Ujjain Mahakaleshwar temple has no connection with Maha Shivratri.
