A 54 second video of a crocodile being rescued from a drain has gone viral on social media platforms with the claim that this crocodile was rescued from Dadar area of Mumbai.
#Crocodile found in a gutter in Dadar #India ! #MumbaiRains #CrocodileHunter @WWFINDIA @RobertIrwin pic.twitter.com/kyzPf5B6Ia
— Ravi Karan Malhotra 🕉️ 🇮🇳 (@BeingRKM) July 29, 2019
Apart from Twitter, several individual users have posted the video on their timelines on Facebook.
RATNAGIRI, NOT MUMBAI
Alt News found that this incident has been reported in the Marathi media, stating that the crocodile was found and rescued at Chiplun.
चिपळूण: पुराच्या पाण्यातून गटारात आलेली मगर विभागाच्या कर्मचाऱ्यांनी पिंजऱ्यात जेरबंद केली.
चिपळूण: दादर मोहल्ला परिसरात पुराच्या पाण्यातून गटारात आलेली मगर विभागाच्या कर्मचाऱ्यांनी पिंजऱ्यात जेरबंद केली. (कालची घटना)
#chiplun #crocodilePosted by Maharashtra Times on Sunday, July 28, 2019
Alt News found that the video is indeed from Chiplun in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. It is not from Dadar, Mumbai as claimed. We spoke to Vijayraj Surve, Divisional Forest Officer, Ratnagiri who confirmed that the crocodile was captured in Chiplun. “There is an area called Dadar in Chiplun, which is probably why the confusion arose in the first place. The crocodile was rescued on July 26 after the Forest Department received information that a crocodile was spotted inside a drain.” Chiplun is roughly 320 kilometres south of Mumbai.
It may be reiterated that the video of the crocodile being rescued from a drain is from Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra and not from Dadar, Mumbai.
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