Video of a father-son duo feeding coconut is falsely shared as they fed meat to elephant in Kerala.
Rating
Claim
This Kerala muslim fellow tried to give meat to the elephant. See what happened. Are these fellows born with sense or are they trying to convert even animals to islam? 👉🏿🚩(Their Arrogance 😇)
Explanation
Elephants are mostly reared in Kerala for timber trade and temple festivals. Therefore, it is noteworthy that Kerala ranks third among the states with the highest number of elephants in India.
In this situation, a video of a child and a father going to feed an elephant is going viral on social media claiming that a Muslim man is trying to feed meat to the elephant in Kerala and that they are trying to convert even animals to Islam in Kerala.
https://twitter.com/pdd1508deshmukh/status/1666768424503218176?s=46&t=kIszbQH_arRSG8kPbuGeZw
Also, the video shows the father saving the child from the elephant attack when he went to feed it. Some of the posts with the same claim be seen here and here. This video is viral since 2022 with the same claim.
https://twitter.com/rahular58428507/status/1514062580373147650?s=46&t=kIszbQH_arRSG8kPbuGeZw
What is the truth?
When reverse-searching the keyframes of the viral video we found that the video is old and the father-son duo fed coconut and not meat.
Our search revealed that the incident took place in November 2021 in Kizhuparamba, Malappuram district of Kerala. The elephant’s name is “Kolakkadan Mini” and the boy did not give meat but went to give coconuts, said the keeper of the elephant, Kolakkadan Nasser, as per the article published by Times of India’s Kerala publication Malayalam Samayam on April 8, 2022.
Kerala-based AsianetNews posted a video on its YouTube page on April 6, 2022, with the title “Father and son attacked by an elephant while feeding”.
An AsianetNews news anchor said in the video, “The father and son were attacked by the elephant while they were feeding the elephant on the ground. Fortunately, the father rescued his child. That elephant belonged to Kolakkadan Nasser. This incident happened six months ago.”
A post dated April 8, 2022, on Nabeel Kunhappu’s Facebook page mentions, “Sharing what the father has to say about saving the child from the clutches of an elephant. Let at least a few people know the truth”. It was seen that a video had been posted mentioning in Malayalam. And the child’s father who spoke in it is seen saying that they did not give meat but coconut.
This article is originally published in Tamil by Youturn on 8, June 2023.
Conclusion
In our search, we found that the claim that a Muslim man went to feed meat to the elephant in Kerala is false and it is to be noted that the child actually went to feed the elephant with a coconut.
