Viral Video Does Not Show a Real Elephant Dancing, It’s a Costume!

A video which appears to show a dressed-up elephant dancing amid a crowd of people celebrating an event has gone viral on social media.

The claim: Some users have shared this video with the statement that "Only Sanatan Culture can keep animals happy."

Who shared it?: Media organisations News24 Hindi, ABP News, and Loksatta published articles on the viral video, discussing on the "royal elephant" danced along to music.

Is it true?: No, the 'dancing elephant' is actually a person inside a costume.

• The organiser of the event where this 'elephant' performed, Elevenz Kadavallur, confirmed that the elephant was not real and it was a person in a costume.

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How did we find out?: In the video, we noticed that the white cloth on the elephant's back, and the banner above it reads 'Elevenz'.

• The shop boards visible in the video are in Malayalam, indicating that the video may be from Kerala.

• For the video, we used InVID, a video verification tool, to divide it into keyframes and ran reverse image searches on them.

• One result by Google Lens led us to an Instagram reel posted as a collaboration by users 'Anil Arts' and 'Elevenz Kadavallur'.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Anil (@_anil.arts_)

The Quint reached out to Elevenz on Instagram, where Anas, a member of the club who also handles their social media, confirmed that the elephant was not real.

• We learnt that the 'elephant' was a costume donned by one person who could control how it moved.

• It was created by an art group Anil Arts for the "native temple festival," known as pooram, which was celebrated on 21 and 22 January.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Elevenz Kadavallur (@elevenz_kadavallur_)

• Anas told us that Elevenz Kadavallur is a social club located in Kadavallur, a town in Kerala's Thrissur district, which was established in 2011 and has been participating in poorams.

More visuals: We came across more videos of the 'elephant' on the club's and Anil Arts' accounts. Some more of them can be seen below, or at the links here, here, and here.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amal Akd (@amalakd_reels)

Conclusion: A video of a person performing in an elephant costume is being shared to claim that it shows a real elephant dancing happily.

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