Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Visuals of a leopard roaming in the Gomatgiri area of Indore surfaced on Thursday night. However, the district forest officer has confirmed that the photos and videos of the leopard are fake.
It was being said that the residents had clicked pictures of the big cat roaming on the streets of Nanoid village bringing the matter to light.
DFO, Mahendra Solanki in a statement said that the viral video is edited by a boy named Abhishek. "It is a request to all the journalist brothers that the video of leopard that has gone viral from Gomatgiri is fake. Please do not pay attention to it. The video has been edited and shared by a boy named Abhishek. Ralamandal SDO has been directed to file a police case in the matter," he said.
Edited visuals |
Fake visuals caused panic
As soon the fake videos and photos came to fore, people started sharing them rapidly on WhatsApp. The incident caused panic among the locals and prompted them to confine themselves indoors. In the fake pictures, the big cat was seen roaming in congested localities.
One leopard still roaming free
It is noteworthy that the area is very close to Infosys campus where a leopardess alongwith its two cubs was spotted earlier this month. Later on, two weeks ago a leopard was again spotted in the Gomatgiri area. A resident of Samarth city had shared CCTV footage of the leopard with the forest department after which, DFO Mahendra Singh Solanki had said, “We will carry out a search operation in the area to rescue the wild animal.”
There were speculations that it is the same leopardess that the rescue team has failed to catch even after weeks of operation. However, the visuals have now been proved fake.
