An old and unrelated video showing a committee of vultures gathered on a road is being shared with the false claim that they were spotted in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, ahead of the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony later this month.
BOOM found that the viral video dated back online to October 2021 and is not linked to the consecration ceremony for Ayodhya's Ram Mandir that is set to be held on January 22, 2024.
According to news reports, a bronze idol of 'Jatayu' was placed at the historic 'Kuber Tila' within the Janmabhoomi complex, as Jatayu is said to have played a significant role in the Hindu epic Ramayana. The Times of India cited the trust treasurer Govind Devagiri, stating that the statue symbolises the sacrifices made by lakhs of devotees involved in the Ram temple struggle during Kalyug.
The six seconds video is being shared claiming that it shows the Hindu demigod 'Jatayu' paying a visit to Ayodhya ahead of the inauguration of the Ram temple. The text when translated from Hindi reads, "After many years, a herd of Jatayu appeared in Ayodhya, it is no less than a miracle Jaitu Sanatan, Jai Shri Ram, Jai Govind".
(Original Text in Hindi: कई वर्षो बाद अयोध्या मे जटायु का झुण्ड दिखाई दिया यह चमत्कार से कम नही है जयतु सनातन,जय श्री राम,जय गोविंद)
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Fact Check
BOOM found that the viral video dated back to October 2021 and is not recent as being claimed on social media.
We broke the video into multiple keyframes and used both Google Lens and the Russian search engine Yandex, and ran a reverse image search which results showed that the video is not recent.
We found an article by TV9 Marathi published on March 24, 2022, that carried the same visuals in its feature image. The article reported about the video, attributing it to an X post by IPS officer Dipanshu Kabra posted on March 23, 2022.
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We found the same video uploaded on a Facebook page on October 8, 2021. The Facebook post, though, did not mention any information about the video, such as its date or the location where it was shot.
The caption of the post when translated from Arabic reads, "Do you know the name of this bird?"
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BOOM could not verify location of the video. However, we were able to establish that the viral video is old, dating back to 2021, and not linked to Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh as being claimed on social media posts.