A social media post accompanying a video, which shows an elephant running amok, stopping immediately after seeing a man, is being widely shared. The video is being shared associating it to a story, stating that the elephant, ran into the village in search of food, without the mahout, and on its way back, spots the mahout and explains him that it is hungry in sign language. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of an elephant explaining the mahout that it is hungry.
Fact: These visuals show an elephant running amok, as it couldn’t bear the heat and honks of the bikers. The viral narrative, attributed to the incident, is fabricated. Multiple news agencies reported the incident. None of these reports mentioned about this viral narrative. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
The visuals shared in the viral post indeed show an elephant running amok, however, the narrative associated is not true.
The visuals show an incident that happened in Kerala’s Mannarkkad, earlier in February 2023. Google search with relevant keywords yielded multiple Malayalam news articles, which reported this video (here, here, here & here).
As per these reports, in Mannarkkad, an elephant which was supposed to fetch wood, ran amok, as it got panicked, due to heat and honking sound of the bikers. Reportedly, the elephant ran for about 12 kilometers and eventually stopped at the MES college and was watered.
Multiple news agencies have reported the incident. These reports can be viewed here & here. A lengthier video of the incident can be viewed here. From this footage, it is clear that after stopping in front of a man, the elephant chews something and was later directed into a farm.
However, in the viral post, this part of elephant chewing is misconstrued as it trying to tell the mahout that it is hungry. However, none of the above-mentioned reports attributed any such narrative as claimed in the viral post.
To sum it up, visuals of an elephant running amok are being shared with a fabricated tale.
