A video purportedly showing a leopard crossing a road in Hyderabad became viral on Tuesday morning with citizens sharing it as a visual from the Kasu Brahmananda Reddy Park. Many incredulous social media users shared the video by prefacing: “Is this true?”It was first uploaded by a user, Adil Bukhari, who passed it off as a sighting near Road No. 12, Banjara Hills, at 12 a.m. However, an effort to fact-check with Rakesh Reddy Dubbudu of Factly revealed that the video was from Tirupati and a CCTV footage from April 18 at 3.11 a.m.
“Our hunch was that it was from Tirupati and it turned out to be true,” said Mr. Dubbudu, who is collaborating with the Telangana government to spot fake news.
Around the world, many videos have surfaced about animals returning to urban areas due to the absence of human activity due to Covid-19 lockdown. However, many of them have turned out to be fake.
Interestingly, leopards and even tigers are no strangers to Hyderabad and its environs. Some of the encounters ended tragically as it did for Jocelyn Mellor, a captain of Royal Horse Artillery, who died due to wounds inflicted by a tiger, as early as June 6, 1905. Leopard sightings have continued into the 21st century but mostly on the outskirts of the city.
