Old Video of Crocodile Spotted in Madhya Pradesh Shared as One From Haryana

This video dates back to 2022 and is from Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh.

Fact-check: This video of a crocodile is from Madhya Pradesh and not flooded areas of Ambala, Haryana. 

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video showing a crocodile swimming in a water-logged residential area is going viral on social media with a claim that this reptile was spotted recently in flood-struck Ambala, Haryana.

Ambala witnessed a flood after heavy rainfall took place in the district on 9-10 July.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Where is the video from?: The video dates back to August 2022 and is from Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri district.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video and we came across a tweet carrying the longer version of the video.

• The tweet was from 14 August 2022 and the caption stated that this is from Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh.

• The viral video can be seen from the 0:20 timestamp in the original video.

• Taking a cue, we performed a relevant keyword search on Google which s led us to a report published on 15 August 2022 by ABP News, which mentioned that the incident took place on 14 August 2022 near the old bus stand in the Shivpuri district of Madhya Pradesh.

• Similar news reports were published by NDTV and News 18.

• The crocodile was eventually captured after more than an hour-long operation by the rescue team of Madhav National Park, and it was then released in Sankhya Sagar Lake.

A screenshot from NDTV's news report.

(Source: NDTV/ Screenshot)

We also confirmed the location with a local reporter: The Quint's reporter, Vishnukant Tiwari, also confirmed that the video was from MP and not Haryana.

He said, "This incident is from an area behind a private bus stand near the Mahavir Nagar area in Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh."

The first 15 seconds of the original video was passed off last year as a video from Bengaluru; you can read our fact-check here.

Conclusion: Evidently, a video of a crocodile being spotted in Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri in August 2022 is being falsely linked to Haryana floods of 2023.

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