Claim: A viral picture of an elephant poisoned to death from mercury contaminated galamsey waters
Source: Social Media
Verdict:FALSE
Researched by Benjamin Tenkorang
Illegal small scale mining in Ghana, popularly referred to as galamsey, has in recent times dominated the news headlines especially ahead of the 2024 general elections.
A picture being circulated on social media suggests that an elephant has died due to poisoning from mercury contaminated galamsey waters. The same picture with similar captions have also been shared by some X users here and here.
Verification by GhanaFact using Google Reverse Image search shows that the picture was first posted in July, 2020 by an animal conservation group in Brazil, Global Sanctuary for Elephants.
The picture was originally used for a story about a female elephant named Maia who is over 40 years old.
A screengrab from ‘Global Sanctuary For Elephants’ website
According to the story, Maia as seen in the picture was having a “lying down nap in the mud,” shortly after taking breakfast.
So the photo being widely circulated shows a live elephant taking a nap in the mud and not one that had been killed . The photo is also not from Ghana and no credible news portal or government agency has reported about such an incident.
