A terrifying video alleging that a man by the name of Raju Patel, of Pench in Madhya Pradesh, was in the process of petting and feeding a tiger liquor became viral on social media, but turns out that the whole thing is a hoax and the video is artificial intelligence.
The viral message asserted that a 52-year-old labourer, Raju, who happened to be out late drinking, confused a tiger with a big cat and then chose to pet it during the streetlights hours. The video seemed too realistic that most of them thought it was a real CCTV recording in Pench.
Viral Pench Tiger Video Exposed as AI Hoax
Nevertheless, fact-checkers have now already established that the clip was created by AI and is not an actual event. Interestingly, no believable media or a local forest department has ever documented such an incident despite the fact that Pench is famous when it comes to actual sightings of tigers.
The narrative has just been replicated and repackaged verbatim on various social media platforms making it another viral hoax with no serious intent behind it.
Watch the clip here:
TRUE INCIDENT (as received)
On October 4, 2025, in Pench, India, a surreal moment was captured on CCTV. Raju Patel, a 52-year-old labourer, patted a tiger he mistook for a “big cat” after a late-night card game, tipsy from homemade liquor. Raju stumbled onto a street where a… pic.twitter.com/D2tx2ZLUiJ
— Mukul Dekhane (@dekhane_mukul) October 29, 2025
AI-Generated Tiger Video from Madhya Pradesh Goes Viral
To further contribute to the commotion, users have clogged the comments section with jokes some requesting the recipe of the liquor that Raju drinks, others joking about AI being able to now make anything possible.
The one who posted the video commented, Raju is now heavily under police guard and has blocked his Social Media page, it seems he was now being hounded by the whole local male population who were married and who were demanding he release the recipe to the home-brewed liquor.
The other user commented, they were also curious to know what AI tool he utilised to make the video. On the one hand, one of the users wrote, AI-created content to engage in farming, and I also bait.
Although user-created videos on sensational animal encounters have been on the rise, experts advise users to be wary of such videos, particularly with the increasing realism of AI-created videos.
