A photograph showing tragic wildlife conditions, with large bulldozers cutting down trees, is being shared on social media with a false claim that it shows the ongoing deforestation of 400 acres of forest cover near the University of Hyderabad (UoH) campus.
BOOM found that the viral picture is not real, and detected several artifacts that highlight the use of generative AI to create the image. We also ran the image through a few AI image detection tools, which confirmed it as AI-generated.
The Supreme Court recently issued an immediate stay order and questioned the Telangana government's urgency in clearing trees in the Kancha Gachibowli area near the UoH campus. Following the order, UoH students celebrated it as a partial victory in their protest and decided to end their hunger strike. They also demanded the removal of all JCBs from the site and a halt to tree cutting while waiting for the court’s final decision.
A Facebook user shared the photo and wrote, "This picture has broken my heart. This is my Alma mater HCU (University of Hyderabad) where deforestation is going on. Innocent animals are running here & there".
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact Check
BOOM first searched for a credible source for the picture but found none. We then closely examined the image and identified several discrepancies commonly found in AI-generated pictures.
We noticed a significant misalignment in a bird's wing and the deformed, abnormal positioning of a deer's legs in the photograph, which highlight anomalies typically found in AI-generated images.
The anomalies in the viral photograph are highlighted below.
For further confirmation, we tested the picture using the AI image detection tool Hive Moderation. After analysing the image, the tool concluded that there is a 99.4 percent chance it is "AI-generated or deepfake content."
We also ran the image through another AI detection tool called Was It AI, which indicated an equally high probability of the image being AI-generated.