Crocodile Rescued From Ratnagiri Drain Shared As Mumbai

A two part video of forest officials trying to rescue a crocodile from a roadside open drain in Chiplun, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra is viral with a false claim of the incident happening in Mumbai's Dadar area.

The video is being shared on Facebook and Twitter with the caption, 'Crocodile found in main road gutter in dadar' and 'Crocodile found in Dadar, Mumbai'

Click here and here for the archive links of the posts

The same video was shared on WhatsApp with a caption claiming the crocodile was found in Powai, Mumbai.

FACT-CHECK

BOOM found several news reports which claimed the crocodile was found in Chiplun area in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. The news articles in Marathi described that the crocodile was found in a drain in a residential area of Chiplun with many suggesting the cause was the rising water level of the river Vashishti that flows through Chiplun.

BOOM contacted Divisional Forest Officer Vijayraj Surve, Divisional Forest Officer who confirmed that the crocodile was caught from a drain in Chiplun.

"The incident is from July 27 when we received information that a crocodile was spotted in a drain in Dadar area of Chiplun. The video shows our forest officials rescuing the crocodile by getting it out of the drain and then catching it,"Surve said.

He added that the viral messages must have claimed Dadar in Mumbai because similar names of the areas. "Dadar is also an area in Chiplun. The crocodile was rescued in a drain in Chiplun's Dadar not Dadar in Mumbai,"he clarified.

BOOM also found a Facebook live on a Facebook page run by residents of Chiplun Chiplunites which posted the video on July 27 with the caption, 'Crocodile @ Dadar Mohalla, #Chiplun'.