Fact Check: 2016 photo from Rajasthan falsely shared as cows dying at Kerala Devaswom Board's cowshed

NewsMeter received a screenshot of the viral image along with a text that read, "To whom will the Devaswom Board respond to this offense? Fifteen cows died of starvation in the board's barn."

Fact Check

The claim is misleading.

NewsMeter performed a Google reverse image that led us to a report published by India Times on 5 August 2016. It had published a similar image.

It said that there had been reports of hundreds of cows dying at Hingonia Gaushala in Rajasthan due to neglect and starvation. "The functioning of cow shelter in Hingonia, the biggest of its kind in Rajasthan, had been hit since last month after contract laborers began a strike demanding unpaid wages. They also claim that there is an acute shortage of staff at the welfare home which currently have less than 20 laborers as against the required strength of 240," the report said.

Following these allegations, Kunji Lal Meena, the secretary for the department of animal husbandry and Gaupalan, had said the cows that had died were only recently brought to the facility and most of them were already unwell and suffering from malnutrition, according to the report.

A similar report was also published by Aaj Tak on 8 August 2016. "Despite efforts, 85 hungry and thirsty cows trapped in the swamp for several days in the government Gaushala of Jaipur could not be saved. Despite the deployment of a huge army of doctors, engineers, and officials, a record number of 85 cows died on Sunday. According to the officials of the Gaushala, till now in the history of the gaushala of Rajasthan, so many cows have never died in a single day," read the report.

We then searched whether there was an incident of 15 cows dying of starvation in Kerala Devaswom Board's cowshed. The search led us to a YouTube video news report uploaded by Manorama News on 1 February 2018. It said a similar incident had taken place in Sabarimala where 15 cows had died in 2018.

We also found that the image has been circulating on social media since 2018.

It is evident that the claim made through the viral post is false. The viral image is not from Kerala Devaswom Board's cowshed but from Rajasthan from 2016. Apart from this, it is to be noted that it is true that there was an incident of 15 cows dying in Sabarimala in 2018 but the viral image is not related to that incident.