Unrelated Clip Shared as Sarus Crane Injured After Being Taken Away From Arif

Bareilly forest guard Nasir Ali Khan confirmed that it was not the bird which was taken away from Arif in Amethi.

A clip of a wounded Sarus crane on what appears to be a railway platform is going viral on social media platforms.

What is the claim?: Those sharing it have claimed, "Saras was living a comfortable life with Mohammad Arif for a year. Then one day the UP (Uttar Pradesh) Forest Department separated it from Arif. Today, it is lying injured on the platform of an unknown railway station."

(More archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)

What is the truth?: The viral clip is from Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly Junction and shows a different Sarus crane which was injured after colliding with a train.

• Speaking to The Quint, Bareilly forest guard Nasir Ali Khan refuted the viral claim. He said that the Sarus crane which was taken away from Arif Khan Gurjar in Amethi is kept in Kanpur zoo.

What led us to the truth?: A simple reverse image search led us to a report published in Times of India on 25 March.

• It carried a similar visual to the viral video and mentioned that a Sarus crane was hit by a train and later attacked by monkeys on Bareilly Junction.

• The bird was taken Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) for treatment where it succumbed to its injuries.

• A report published in UP Tak on 24 March carried the headline in Hindi, which loosely translates to, "Another painful story of a Sarus crane seen in UP, got injured after colliding with a train."

• It is being alleged that officials from the forest department did not come to rescue the bird after they were informed about its situation.

• It also mentioned that the Government Railway Police (GRP) shifted the bird to IVRI for treatment.

What else?: We found a tweet posted on the official Twitter handle of SP GRP Moradabad which mentioned that a Sarus crane was found injured on a platform of Bareilly Junction.

आज दि0 23.03.23 को थाना प्रभारी जीआरपी बरेली जं0 को प्लेटफार्म पर एक सारस के घायल अवस्था में होने की सूचना प्राप्त होने पर तत्काल मौके पर जाकर वन विभाग की टीम की सहायता से घायल सारस को IVRI बरेली भेजकर उपचार दिलाकर जीवन बचाया गया। @Uppolice @upgrp_grp pic.twitter.com/Hog9SqNJi2

— SP GRP MORADABAD (@spgrpmoradabad) March 23, 2023

• A report in Telegraph Online published on 29 March said that Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav along with Gurjar were not allowed to meet the "rescued" Sarus crane at Kanpur zoo.

• It mentioned that the bird was kept under a 15-day quarantine.

• Yadav posted several pictures on his official Twitter handle on 29 March, which included an image of the Sarus crane.

• The image had a date stamp of 28 March.

उप्र की भावना प्रधान जनता की भाजपा सरकार से अपेक्षा है कि :

- ‘राज्य पक्षी सारस’ को राजनीतिक विद्वेष की प्रताड़ना के बंधन से मुक्त करके प्राकृतिक वातावरण में भेजा जाए।
- सारस को बचानेवाले को ‘सारस-मित्र’ के रूप में सम्मानित किया जाए।
- सरकार चाहे तो इसके लिए जनमत करवाकर देख ले। pic.twitter.com/g5FLFK876O

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) March 29, 2023

What happened?: UP Forest Department officials took away a rare Sarus crane from Arif and shifted to Kanpur zoo. Arif had rescued the bird about a year after he found the bird bleeding from its leg.

• Soon after this, their videos were being shared to show the unlikely friendship between the two.

Conclusion: An unrelated clip of a different bird which was injured on Bareilly Junction is being shared with a false claim.

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