Crocodile Spotted in K'taka Falsely Linked to Maharashtra Floods

The incident took place on 1 July in Karnataka's Kogilabanna village, and not in Maharashtra's Chiplun as claimed.

As floods hit several parts of Maharashtra's Konkan region in July, a video is being shared on social media with the claim that a crocodile had entered a residential area in Chiplun.

We found that the video is from an incident that took place on 1 July in Karnataka's Kogilabanna village and not in Chiplun as claimed.

CLAIM

A Facebook user shared the 30-second video with the claim that the crocodile entered the "habitat region" in Chiplun, Maharashtra during the recent flood situation.

Some Facebook users shared the video along with similar claims and the archived versions can be found here and here. The video also saw its presence on YouTube and the archived versions can be accessed here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

Using Google Chrome's InVID extension, we divided the video into multiple keyframes and conducted a reverse image search on them. The search results led us to a tweet by journalist Shiv Aroor.

He had posted the viral video on 1 July and the tweet read, "Beautiful big Mugger crocodile seen walking on the streets of Kogilabanna village in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district this morning."

Beautiful big Mugger crocodile seen walking on the streets of Kogilabanna village in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district this morning, reports @nolanentreeo. Has been safely released back into the Kali River by Forest Department officials. @IndiaToday pic.twitter.com/FkO0AKTcbU

— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) July 1, 2021

Further, a report by The News Minute mentioned that the reptile was spotted on 1 July in Kogilabanna village and had made its way from the Kali river in Dandeli town, about 5 km away. Forest officials had later captured it and released it into the river.

WAS A CROCODILE SPOTTED IN MAHARASHTRA'S CHIPLUN?

It must be noted that in another incident on 23 July, a crocodile was indeed spotted in the floodwaters in Chiplun town, as reported by The Times of India.

In July, floods had ravaged several parts of Maharashtra, including Chiplun, Satara, Raigad, among others.

After severe flooding in Western Maharashtra and Konkan, overflowing rivers and rising water levels had resulted in crocodiles being spotted around villages and in residential localities.

Evidently, a viral video from Karnataka was used to falsely claim that it showed a crocodile in Maharashtra's Chiplun area.

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