A video of an injured sarus (stork crane) seen at Bareilly junction in Uttar Pradesh is being shared online with the false claim that it is the same stork that was rescued and fostered by Amethi-based farmer Arif Khan Gurjar, and then separated from him by intervention from the forest department.
BOOM found that the injured sarus seen in the viral video was unrelated to the one rescued by Gurjar, who is currently in Kanpur Zoo.
Gurjar shot to popularity after stories of him nursing an injured sarus back to health for a year went viral online. Videos of the two eating together and roaming around the village, with the sarus following Gurjar on his bike, have captivated users.
However, their happiness was cut short after officials from Uttar Pradesh's forest department relocated the sarus to the Samaspur Bird Sanctuary near Raebareli and booked Gurjar for violating the Wildlife Protection Act, which prohibits individuals from feeding and caring for wild birds. A few days after being taken to Samaspur, reports emerged that the bird became despondent without Gurjar and ran away. It was later found by the villagers in Bi Saiya, who fed the bird and cared for it until it was relocated to Kanpur Zoo.
This decision by the Forest Department garnered severe backlash online for separating Gurjar and the bird. Some of the most vocal critics included former UP CM and Samajwadi Party member Akhilesh Yadav, who wrote, "The BJP people do not love the environment of love, whether it is love between man and man or between man and bird."
The unrelated visuals of the injured sarus are being circulated in the backdrop of this story, purporting to show the bird suffering after its separation from Gurjar. Posts with this video was shared on Twitter with the caption, "The strange laws of this country will take the life of the stork. This is the condition of Sarus, who always mingled with Arif."
(Original text in Hindi: "इस देश के अजीबोगरीब कानून सारस की जान लेकर रहेंगे। हमेशा आरिफ के साथ घुल मिलकर रहने वाले सारस की आज ये हालत हो गई है।")
Click here to view the tweet and here for an archive.
The post is also circulating on Facebook.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Similar posts can be found here and here.
FACT-CHECK
A reverse image search on Google using keywords "sarus" and "Uttar Pradesh" in Hindi led us to several news reports about a sarus' accident on Bareilly junction on March 23.
BOOM found that the visuals of the injured sarus in the viral video from Bareilly junction show a different bird and have no links to the sarus that Gurjar fostered.
According to several media reports published on March 24, 2023, the sarus in Bareilly was hit by a train while flying and fell on the tracks. After being harassed by monkeys, the bird came to platform number 2 of Bareilly Junction. One of its wings had been injured due to the accident, and a few people informed the Government Railway Police (GRP) about the incident. Following this, the bird was sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) for treatment, where it succumbed to its wounds. Read here and here.
Users on Twitter had also shared visuals of the sarus at Bareilly junction.
We also found a tweet uploaded by the official Twitter handle of SP GRP Moradabad uploaded on March 23 that gave details about the sarus' accident and how it was sent to IVRI for treatment.
A TOI report published on March 25 quoted Bareilly's District Forest Officer (DFO), who said that the sarus died due to "excessive bleeding" after it was brought in by the IVRI.
On the other hand, reports about the sarus rescued by Gurjar suggest that it is currently under quarantine at the Kanpur Zoo.
We also found a tweet by Akhilesh Yadav uploaded on March 29 where him and Gurjar are looking at the sarus through a CCTV camera. The CCTV footage showing the sarus drinking water bears the date '28/03/2023.'
We also found that Gurjar had uploaded a video on March 31 on his Instagram account where he shared details about seeing the bird he rescued through a CCTV footage and that they would only be able to meet face-to-face after the quarantine was over.
We also spoke to Kanpur zoo's chief veterinarian, Dr Anurag Singh, who confirmed that Gurjar's sarus was not dead. While talking about the bird in his care, he said, "The bird is healthy and is eating a proper diet. The viral claim is false." Singh also confirmed that the incident in Bareilly was unrelated to the sarus in Kanpur Zoo.