This crocodile was found in a gutter in India’s Maharashtra state -- but not in Mumbai

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 7, 2019 at 06:00
2 min read
By AFP India

A video of a live crocodile being dragged out of an open sewer and into a cage has been viewed thousands of times in Facebook and Twitter posts that claim the animal was captured in the Indian city of Mumbai. The claim is misleading; the video was actually shot in Chiplun city in the state of Maharashtra, about 250 kilometers south of Mumbai.

The 54-second video was shared in this Facebook post on July 29, 2019, where it has been viewed more than 10,000 times.

The post’s caption says: “Crocodile found in Open Nala in Mumbai”. The Hindi word “Nala” means gutter or sewer.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

Screenshot of misleading Facebook post

The same video has been published elsewhere on Facebook, for example here, here, here and here alongside similar claims. Some of these posts say the crocodile was found in a Mumbai suburb called Dadar.

The clip was also published here and here on YouTube alongside a similar claim, and here on Twitter.

The claim is misleading; the video was actually filmed in the Dadar locality of Chiplun district in India’s Maharashtra state – around 250km (150 miles) south of Mumbai, the state’s capital.

A Google search using keywords like “crocodile”, “rescued” and “Mumbai” found this report published on a local news website on July 29, 2019, which contains the same video.

The report is headlined “Alert: Viral crocodile rescue video from Dadar Mohalla in Chiplun, not Dadar in Mumbai”.

It includes a picture of four men trying to get the crocodile into a cage, which is credited to “Kalusta.Chiplun”.

A search on Facebook for the name Kalusta found a user with the same name had published the image and video along with one more video of the incident here on July 27, 2019.

The post is embedded below:

A caption alongside the image and videos in the post reads: “Crocodile is caught by forest officers. Location: Dadar Mohalla, #Chiplun. #Ratnagiri.”

A journalist from AFP’s Delhi bureau spoke over Facebook messenger to Facebook user Kalusta, who confirmed the incident took place in Chiplun.

“I am a resident of Chiplun. The videos are of Dadar Mohalla (locality) in Chiplun, Ratnagiri,” he replied to a query about the location of the incident.

The incident was reported by Indian media, for example here on the website of newspaper Deccan Chronicle, here by NDTV and here by the Indian Express, all saying that it happened in Chiplun district in Maharashtra state.

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