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Old Video Of Kerala Man Feeding Coconut To Elephant Revived With False Communal Claim
Kerala, 16 Jun 2023 9:54 AM GMT
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An old video that shows a child being grabbed and tossed by an elephant has gone viral across social media with a false claim that a Muslim man tried to feed meat to the elephant.
An old video that shows a child being grabbed and tossed by an elephant has gone viral across social media. The video has gone viral with the claim that the Muslim man in the video and the child tried to feed meat to the elephant.
Claim:
The video shows a man and a child approaching an elephant. They attempt to offer an item to the elephant as food. However, the elephant grabs the child with the trunk, and the man is able to take the child away from the grasp of the elephant. While sharing this video, people on social media claimed that a Muslim man from Kerala attempted to feed meat to the elephant. Social media users mocked this alleged action stating that the man is attempting to convert the elephant to Islam.
A Twitter user shared this video and wrote, "This Kerala Muslim fellow tried to give meat to the elephant. See what happened. Are these fellows born with sense or are they trying to convert even animals to Islam? 👉🏿🚩(Their Arrogance 😇)
Another user wrote, "This Kerala Muslim Fellow Tried to Give Meat to the Elephant. See what Happened. Are These Fanatics Born Idiots or Are They Trying to Convert Even Animals to Islam? (Their Arrogance) Due to the Arrogance of the Parents, the kid has Paid for it. Shameless ppl".
It is being widely shared on social media with a similar claim.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian Fact Check team verified the viral claim and found it to be false. The man in the video was attempting to feed coconuts to the elephant.
We conducted a keyword search with the relevant terms such as "father and son being attacked by an elephant." We came across a report by Asianet News that talks about the incident. The video report was uploaded on April 6th, 2022, which indicated the viral video is not recent.
The translated title of the video reads, "Elephant attack on father and son while feeding". Following this, we conducted a keyword search, through which we came across a report on Manorama Online.
This report states that the name of the father is Nabeel and the child is his 4-year-old son. The report mentions that Nabeel was feeding coconut to the elephant. Following this, his son began to insist that he wanted to feed the elephant, which led to the incident. The report also states that the elephant's name is Kolakkadan Mini.
We conducted another keyword search with this information and came across several videos featuring Kolakkadan Mini, the elephant.
The Elephant Database carried more details about the elephant such as the name of its owner, Abdul Nassar Kolakkadan. He is a private elephant owner, living in Keezhu Parambu, Areekode in Malappuram.
We searched across Facebook for more information on the incident using this information. We found the Facebook profile of Nabeel Kunhappu, the father shown in the video. He had uploaded a statement that gave all the details about the incident.
We took the help of our Malayali friend to translate the caption with the video. In the statement, Nabeel shared that his family had been feeding coconuts to the elephant. He says that the incident took place in Malappuram, Kerala.
"My son was insisting that he wanted to see the elephant. We went to see the elephant and gave it a coconut piece. The son became adamant and demanded that he also wanted to feed the elephant. Then the incident took place. My son was harmed but I pulled him away from the elephant. He got minor bruises which were healed within a week. My son is okay now and is suffering from no other problems." In the statement, he also shared a video that shows him approaching the elephant and dropping a coconut for the elephant to eat without any incident of violence.
We found the contact number of Nabeel on Facebook through which we contacted him. On asking about the details of the incident, he replied, "Hi... Thanks for seeking the truth. The video has gone viral... We regularly give sweets and fruits to the elephant. The elephant behaved naturally that day and my son and I miraculously escaped... Some people with racial hatred misinterpreted it and shared posts that defamed me ... It hurts me to emphasize secular values".
Conclusion:
The viral video was shared with the claim that the Muslim man from Kerela attempted to provide the elephant with meat to consume. Social media users mocking alleged that it was an attempt to convert the elephant into Islam. In actuality, the video shows Nabeel Kunhappu with his son who was attempting to feed Kolakkadan Mini with coconuts. The incident took place in Malappuram, Kerela.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
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