Several Indian news outlets, including ABP News and Zee News MP-Chhattisgarh, misreported a video of a man wearing an elephant costume in Kerala, falsely claiming that it depicted a real elephant dancing among the crowd and grooving to the beats of the drums.
In the 1.03-minute video, a crowd of people can be seen dancing with someone wearing an elephant costume, accompanied by the sound of drums and music.
The video was posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) by the verified handle 'Eminent Woke' (@WokePandemic) with the caption, "Only Sanatan Culture can keep animals happy". BOOM has previously debunked misinformation posted by the same account on X.
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This video was then picked by Indian news outlets including ABP News, Zee News MP-Chhattisgarh, News 24 Hindi, and TV9 Hindi, who carried news reported stating that the video is going viral and shows an elephant dancing. However, these reports do not mention that it is not an actual elephant.
ABP News published a report with the headline when translated reads, "Elephant Dance video: Elephant dancing on the beat of drum... video went viral."
The strap when translated reads, "Video: Watching this video shows that everyone likes music, be it humans or animals. In the video you will be able to see how the elephant is dancing to the beat of the Elephant Dance video: Elephant dancing on the beat of drum..."
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Zee News MP-Chhattisgarh published an article on the video with the headline when translated reads, "Viral Video: Elephant did a spectacular dance on the beat of drum, people can't believe the video"
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from Thrissur district in Kerala of a man in an elephant costume dancing at a native temple pooram (festival) that was organised by a social club named Elevenz Kadavallur.
In the viral video, we can spot the name - 'Elevenz' on the elephant's costume and the signboards on the shops are in Malayalam which indicate it is from Kerala.
We then ran a reverse image search using Google Images which search results showed an Instagram post with the same video by the handle by Elevenz Kadavallur. This was posted on January 23, 2024.
The bio of the handle states that it is social club that was started in 2011. The handle has several videos of similar elephant costume dancing video.
We then reached out to Elevenz Kadavallur on Instagram, who confirmed to BOOM that the performance involved an individual dancing inside an elephant costume. This took place at a native temple pooram (festival) on January 22, 2024, in Thrissur district, Kerala.
The dance was organized by Anil Arts, the team responsible for the elephant dance at the event, which handle has also been tagged in the Instagram post by Elevenz Kadavallur, with the viral video.
Below we can see the elephant costume