Fact-Check: Graphic Video Showing Tigers Eating a Man Is Not From India

The graphic video shows an incident from Youngor Wildlife Park in Ningbo city eastern China's Zhejiang province.

The video is neither from the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, nor is it from Chandigarh.

(Source: WhatsApp/Altered by The Quint)

A graphic video of a group of tigers attacking a man is being shared across social media platforms and WhatsApp.

The claim: It is being said that the man was mauled to death. There are two versions of this:

• One claim states that the incident shows tigers attacking along the Coimbatore-Mysuru highway near the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border.

• The other version warns people to not head towards Chandigarh by road, as a man-eating tiger has escaped the Chhatbir zoo near Zirakpur.

(Note: Due to the highly distressing nature of the video, we have refrained from using links to the video or its archives.)

The video is being shared to claim that it is from India.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

The Quint received several queries for this video's verification on its WhatsApp tipline.

But..?: The video is not from India.

It shows an incident from 2017, when a man scaled the Youngor Wildlife Park's wall to reportedly get inside without a ticket in Ningbo city in China's Zhejiang province. He landed in the tigers' enclosure.

How did we find out?: Using InVID, a video verification tool, we divided the video into multiple keyframes.

• A reverse image search on one of these led us to an article published by Evening Standard on 30 January 2017, which carried a still from the graphic video.

Evening Standard mentioned that the video was from China.

(Source: Evening Standard/Altered by The Quint)

• It mentioned that the video was from eastern China's Ningbo city, and showed a man inside the tiger enclosure at Youngor Wildlife Park.

• The report added that the man had scaled the park's wall to reportedly avoid paying for a ticket when he landed in the tigers' enclosure.

• Using relevant keywords, we looked for more information regarding the incident, which led us to one by Chinese news outlet CGTN.

• It reported that the man was identified as one Mr Zhang, who was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead.

The report carried a still from the incident.

(Source: CGTN/Screenshot)

• The zoo's administrative committee issued a statement which mentioned that Zhang crossed one wall and a fence, which carried a warning forbidding people from entering the area, the report added.

• The BBC also reported on the incident, adding that the tiger was shot dead by a special forces unit from the local police, which led to people "condemning the man and mourning for the tiger."

Conclusion: A video shows a 2017 incident from eastern China's Zhejiang province, where a man was mauled after entering the tigers' enclosure at Youngor Wildlife Park in Ningbo city.

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