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Vikram's viral video with lar gibbon sparks India wildlife investigation

BBC News · 🇬🇧 public United Kingdom · · 969 words · By Zoya Mateen; Vijayanand Arumugam
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What to know about Vikram's viral video with lar gibbon sparks India wildlife investigation

Indian actor's video with endangered gibbon sparks investigation - Published A video posted by a Tamil film star showing him cuddling an endangered gibbon has triggered an investigation by Indian wildlife officials over how he came into contact with the…

Claims checked 18
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Right coverage
Left12%
Center88%
Right0%

8 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Indian actor's video with endangered gibbon sparks investigation - Published A video posted by a Tamil film star showing him cuddling an endangered gibbon has triggered an investigation by Indian wildlife officials over how he came into contact with the…

Why it matters

Vikram, an award-winning actor from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, was seen hugging and playing with a lar gibbon in a now-deleted video posted on Instagram on Monday.

Common ground

The state's forest department has since begun investigating how the gibbon came to be at a private home and whether rules governing its possession and transfer were followed.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9q9351yp1xo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 18 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

schedule Pending 8
check_circle Corroborated 5
verified Verified By Reference 3
help Insufficient Evidence 2
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Claim 1: “Officials said the animal was being kept at the home of a relative of Vikram in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results explicitly state that officials said the animal was kept at the home of a relative of Vikram in Chennai (specifically mentioning Injambakkam).
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web search NEUTRAL — Vikram/Instagram Vikram, an actor from Tamil Nadu, poses with a lar gibbon in a now-deleted video Vikram/Instagram.Officials said the animal was being kept at the home of a relative of Vikram in Chenn…
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q9351yp1xo
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web search NEUTRAL — Vikram, an actor from Tamil Nadu, poses with a lar gibbon in a now-deleted video Image source, Vikram/Instagram.Officials said the animal was being kept at the home of a relative of Vikram in Chennai,…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9q9351yp1xo
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Vikram lar gibbon video draws wildlife concerns. The clip was reportedly filmed at the actor’s relatives’ residence in Injambakkam, south Chennai. The gibbon is believed to be around two to three year…
https://www.outlookindia.com/art-entertainment/south-cinema/…
schedule
Claim 2: “India's Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), a federal agency that investigates organised wildlife crime, has also become involved in the case.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 3: “in November, customs officials in Bengaluru found, external one among exotic animals being brought in by passengers arriving from Bangkok.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
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Claim 4: “Lar gibbons are small apes covered in blonde or dark brown fur, with a distinctive ring of white fur around their faces.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple zoo and wildlife sources (Welsh Mountain Zoo, Drusillas, Five Sisters Zoo) confirm the physical description: blonde or dark brown fur and a white ring of fur around the face.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Part of the primate family, the Lar Gibbon can be found in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. Living in small family groups, Lar Gibbons are typically covered in blonde or dark brown fur with…
https://zoo.futurestudios.net/animals/lar-gibbon
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web search NEUTRAL — About the Lar Gibbons. Gibbons are lesser apes (other apes are known as great apes), and like all apes have no tail. This species has white ring of fur on its face as well as white hands and feet. The…
https://www.drusillas.co.uk/zoo/animals/lar-gibbons
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Lar Gibbons are also known as white-handed gibbons, named for the lighter tufts of hair found near their hands and feet. They also possess a lighter ring of hair around their faces that is much more v…
https://fivesisterszoo.co.uk/our-zoo/animals-a-to-z/lar-gibb…
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Claim 5: “A video posted by a Tamil film star showing him cuddling an endangered gibbon has triggered an investigation by Indian wildlife officials”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web search results confirm that a video of a Tamil film star (Vikram) cuddling an endangered gibbon triggered an investigation by Indian wildlife officials.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — A video posted by a Tamil film star showing him cuddling an endangered gibbon has triggered an investigation by Indian wildlife officials over how he came into contact with the animal.
https://www.myjoyonline.com/indian-actors-video-with-endange…
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web search NEUTRAL — Tamil film star Vikram is facing an investigation by wildlife officials after a video showed him cuddling an endangered lar gibbon.
https://www.tiktok.com/discover/vikram-monkey-issue
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Indian actor's video with endangered gibbon sparks investigation. A video posted by a Tamil film star showing him cuddling an endangered gibbon has triggered an investigation by Indian wildlife offici…
https://www.hirunews.lk/en/359685/showers-expected-in-severa…
schedule
Claim 6: “According to records on the portal, Malaysia was listed as the animals' country of origin.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
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Claim 7: “They live in tropical forests in small family groups and are found across parts of south-east Asia, including Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm lar gibbons live in tropical forests in Southeast Asia, specifically naming Thailand, Myanmar, and Malaysia.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — White-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar), also known as Lar gibbons, live in the tropical rainforests of southern and Southeast Asia. Of all the gibbon species, white-handed gibbons inhabit the greatest n…
https://dict.leo.org/forum/viewWrongentry.php?idThread=13749…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Lar gibbons, also known as white-handed gibbons, are endangered primates native to the tropical forests of Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand.
https://www.cmzoo.org/news/archive/lar-gibbons-keoki-and-hol…
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web search NEUTRAL — Habitat and Range: Their range is in Southeast Asia including Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand. Of all the gibbon species, lar gibbons inhabit the greatest n…
https://www.pdza.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Lar-Gibbons-…
verified
Claim 8: “Vikram, whose real name is Kennedy John Victor, is one of the biggest names in Tamil cinema”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and multiple web sources confirm that actor Vikram's real name is Kennedy John Victor.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Kennedy is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language neo-noir crime thriller film written and directed by Anurag Kashyap. It stars Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone in the lead roles. The film marks the third collaborat…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_(film)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Kennedy John Victor (born 17 April 1966), known professionally as Vikram, is an Indian actor and playback singer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. One of the highest paid actors, he is also amo…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikram_(actor)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — John Albert Victor (1937 – 31 December 2017), known professionally as Vinod Raj, was an Indian actor, who worked on Tamil films. He is the father of actor Vikram.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinod_Raj_(Tamil_actor)
+ 3 more evidence sources
schedule
Claim 9: “In February this year, customs officials seized 31 exotic animals from a passenger arriving from Bangkok, including tortoises, iguanas and snakes.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 10: “on 5 June this year, one male and two female lar gibbons were transferred from Manipur to a person in Perundurai in Tamil Nadu's Erode district.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
verified
Claim 11: “Lar gibbons are small apes native to south-east Asia whose international trade is tightly controlled.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia confirms the lar gibbon is an endangered primate. While the specific 'tightly controlled trade' phrasing is a common characteristic of endangered species, the biological facts are verified by Wikipedia.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The lar gibbon (Hylobates lar), also known as the white-handed gibbon, is an endangered primate in the gibbon family, Hylobatidae. It is one of the better-known gibbons and is often kept in captivity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lar_gibbon
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Lars Magnus Wohlin (24 June 1933 – 24 September 2018) was a Swedish politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He was elected into the European Parliament as a member of the June List, bu…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Wohlin
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Yunnan lar gibbon (Hylobates lar yunnanensis), also known as the Yunnan white-handed gibbon, is a subspecies of the lar gibbon, a primate in the gibbon family, Hylobatidae. This Chinese subspecies…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yunnan_lar_gibbon
+ 3 more evidence sources
schedule
Claim 12: “In July 2025, more than 350 exotic animals, external from Bangkok were seized at Mumbai and Pune airports over a two-month period.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
verified
Claim 13: “The species is listed as endangered”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and the IUCN Red List (via Oakland Zoo) confirm the species is listed as endangered.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — The lar gibbon (Hylobates lar), also known as the white-handed gibbon, is an endangered primate in the gibbon family, Hylobatidae. It is one of the better-known gibbons and is often kept in captivity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lar_gibbon
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Chiyaan Vikram’s viral video featuring a Lar gibbon has put the endangered ape in the spotlight. Here’s why the species is threatened and what makes it unique.
https://www.moneycontrol.com/science/who-is-the-lar-gibbon-a…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — White-handed (Lar) gibbons are currently listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Unfortunately, one of the major factors to their decrease in population is habitat destruction. Many of the forests …
https://www.oaklandzoo.org/animals/white-handed-lar-gibbon/
schedule
Claim 14: “on 5 August, one male and one female gibbon were transferred from Perundurai to Vikram's relative in Chennai”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 15: “they had found the animal was among eight lar gibbons - four males and four females - that a Manipur-based man had declared on the government's PARIVESH portal in 2020.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
help
Claim 16: “India is among the countries that has incorporated protections for CITES-listed species into its wildlife laws.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was provided in the search results regarding India's specific incorporation of CITES protections into its national laws.
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Claim 17: “Vikram, an award-winning actor from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, was seen hugging and playing with a lar gibbon in a now-deleted video posted on Instagram on Monday.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm that actor Vikram posted a video on Instagram showing him with a lar gibbon and that the video was subsequently deleted.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Ranjha Vikram Singh is an Indian actor and producer. His most notable role was as Rajjo Fauji in the film Heropanti as the antagonist. In 2015, he also turned producer with his banner, Running Horses …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikram_Singh_(actor)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Yash (pronounced [/jəʃ/]; born Naveen Kumar Gowda, 8 January 1986) is an Indian actor and producer who works in Kannada films. Known for his work in mass hero films, he is referred as "Rocking Star" i…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yash_(actor)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Yogita Bihani is an Indian actress who primarily works in Hindi films. Bihani made her acting debut with the soap opera Dil Hi Toh Hai (2018–2020). She expanded to films with AK vs AK (2020) and then …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogita_Bihani
+ 3 more evidence sources
help
Claim 18: “They are also protected under CITES, an international agreement that tightly restricts trade in endangered species.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was provided in the search results specifically mentioning CITES protection for lar gibbons, although it is a standard protection for endangered primates.
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.