Video shows elephants with “possible birth defects” in Africa, not animals hurt in India
Clips of social media posts wrongly claiming a possible congenital elephant born after the government begins cleaning forest areas in Hyderabad, southern IndiaCT is taken after the operation. But an official in South Africa’s Great Kruger National Park confirmed that the elephant belongs to it Umbabat Private nature reserve.
Hindi language says: “The Telangana government does not have a good veterinarian to treat the government JCB hitting the injured elephant.” x Post sharing April 7, 2025.
JCB India Limited is the country’s leading manufacturer of earth and construction equipment (archive link). However, in India, the term “JCB” is often used as a general reference for bulldozers regardless of brand.
this The post includes an elephant clip with a huge hole in its forehead.
“Where is the government and how long will it continue to remain silent?” the video says superimposed text.
The clip circulated on Facebook and X and was added in protests by students and citizens to avoid cleaning up parts of 400 acres (161 hectares) Kancha Gachibowli – Forest land bordering the Central University of Hyderabad – Create a park (link to archive).
Screenshot of fake posts, taken on April 16, 2025
Police detained several students on March 30 but later released them. Local media organization NDTV reported that the Supreme Court released a case on April 3 at a hearing (archive link) later this month.
Another local media reported that at least three spotted deer were found dead on the university campus within a week after the state cleared adjacent forest land (a link to archive).
But the video shows an elephant from South Africa, not Telangana.
Keyword search on Google found photos of elephants on the website of Singita, a luxury ecotourism brand in South Africa (Archive link).
A blog post titled “A remarkable elephant” mentions the elephant – Rhandzekile – was found moving across multiple areas of Greater Kruger National Park.
Screenshots compare fake posts (left) shared clips and photos uploaded to Singita website
An official in the national park confirmed that elephants traveled through the park’s Umbabat private nature reserve and were in good health.
“In the past, she was a wildlife veterinarian’s assessment of her, and her condition is likely to be a birth defect and does not require medical intervention,” the official told AFP via email on April 11.
The African Geographic website of the Wildlife Safari website writes that rhandzekile (which means “love” in the African Appeal dialect means “love” – freely circling in the Greater Kruger National Park, showing her obstacles do not stop her in any way (a archived link).
Stock Photo website Alamy also shared a photo of the elephant under the title: “Rhandzekile is already an adult and is considered to be around 15 years old” (Archive link).
Telangana usually has no wild elephants, but in some cases stray elephants from neighboring states have entered it (link to archive).
AFP has fact-checked another claim related to the land clearance activity in Telangana.
