An image showing hundreds of dead birds lying on a street has surfaced on social media platforms with a claim insinuating that birds died after telecom companies started 5G testing in India.
A Facebook user shared the image with the caption in Hindi that translates to, “If you don’t wake up then never stop testing 5G. 5G network is not required in the country. I boycott it completely. What is your opinion??”
The image is being widely shared on Facebook and Twitter with the same narrative.
Similar posts can be found here, here, and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral post and found the claim to be false.
With the help of reverse image search, we found this viral picture in a Facebook post dated April 24, 2016. The image was posted with the caption suggesting that thousands of birds died of sunstroke in Chennai.
Taking a cue from this, we performed a keyword search and found this image in a report published by The News Minute on April 21, 2016, titled, “Picture of birds dying due to Chennai heat is a hoax, claim wildlife conservationists.”
In the article, it was clarified the image is not related to Chennai and that it was taken seven years ago in Bihar when birds died after eating seeds that had a high dosage of pesticides.
The report quoted Shravan Krishnan of Chennai Wildlife Rescuers saying, “The picture that has been circulating on social media is not true. The picture has been made by using the editing software Photoshop. It can be clearly figured out by seeing the people’s costumes also. If it happens in Chennai (birds dying en masse), we will be the first ones to be informed about it. ”
He further added that the picture was taken several years ago in Bihar when birds died after eating seeds that had a high dosage of pesticides.
Notedly, the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) has approved the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) applications for conducting the 5G technology trials in India on May 4, 2021. The applicant TSPs include Bharti Airtel Ltd, Reliance Jio, Vodafone, Idea Ltd, and MTNL.
NewsMobile independently couldn’t verify the origin and the location of the picture, but the above information proves that the picture is old.
Hence, we can conclude that the viral image showing hundreds of dead birds lying on a street is being falsely linked to 5G testing in India.
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