False: A leopard was spotted inside Mysore's CFTRI building in January 2023.

By: Vivek J
January 19 2023

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Context

There have been multiple reports of leopard sightings in and around the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) campus in Mysuru, Karnataka, in the first weeks of January 2023. Amid this, a video has been shared on social media claiming that a leopard can be seen roaming inside the CFTRI building in Mysuru. However, this video has been misattributed. 

In Fact

Looking at keyframes, we found that the video of the leopard inside the premises of a facility is from Telangana. A news report by TV9 Telugu shared on YouTube dated December 17, 2022, showed the same video and reported that this incident happened at the Hetero Pharmaceuticals facility in Telangana. 

We found similar reports along with the video shared by ETV Telangana on their YouTube channel. A Deccan Chronicle report on the incident noted that this incident happened in December 2022 at the Hetero manufacturing plant in the Gaddapotharam industrial area in a Telangana district. The leopard was tranquilized and temporarily shifted to the Nehru Zoological park in the state, the report added. 

District Forest Officer (DFO) Shridhar Rao told Deccan Chronicle that the forest department was alerted after the employees of Hetero Pharma sent a video of the leopard inside the facility, and that a team was immediately sent to capture the wild cat. 

This indicates that the video shared on social media is at least three weeks old and not recent, as claimed in the posts. 

Meanwhile, Star Of Mysore, a local news outlet in Mysuru, reported that a security guard at the CFTRI campus saw two leopards on the night of January 3, 2023, and that forest officials were alerted on the matter by the CFTRI director. The report noted that search operations were conducted, and the forest department officials installed several cameras within the campus.

Logically reached out to K Surendra, Regional Forest Officer in Mysuru, who told us that no leopard pugmarks were found in the area where the sighting was reported by the security guard. He also said that none of the CCTV cameras caught the leopard, including the ones installed by the forest department. No videos of the leopard are available near the CFTRI campus in January 2023, confirmed the officer. 

The Verdict

A video of a leopard roaming inside the manufacturing facility of Hetero Pharmaceuticals in Telangana in December 2022 has been shared with the claim that the animal entered the CFTRI facility in Mysuru, Karnataka. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.