An image shared by IFS officer Parveen Kaswan on Twitter.
This afternoon, Indian Forest Services officer Parveen Kaswan surprised a number of his Twitter followers when he shared an image of dinosaurs claiming that it was taken at Bengaluru's Hebbal Lake. The image, quite clearly a photoshop job, left many scratching their heads as Mr Kaswan captioned it: "Now haters will say this is photoshopped. Dinosaurs are back at Hebbal lake of Bangalore. Due to lockdown."
So why did an IFS officer tweeting a photoshopped pic and claiming it's from Bengaluru? Well, Mr Kaswan is just participating in a trend that has taken Twitter by storm over the last few days.
The trend involves people sharing photoshopped pics to parody posts about nature healing during the coronavirus lockdown that have flooded social media of late. The trend initially emerged as a way to satirize fake news stories on lower pollution levels and wildlife reclaiming its space as people are forced to stay in during the coronavirus pandemic - and soon grew into a whole new meme format.
While the tweet has now been deleted, you can look at the image below:
The image went viral on the microblogging platform before it was deleted. It collected nearly 3,000 'likes' and dozens of amused comments within a couple of hours.
"Earth is healing itself," quipped one Twitter user, while another said "That's obviously fake... I don't see maddening traffic anywhere. Can't be Bangalore."
The public relations wing of the government of Karnataka was forced to step in and clarify that dinosaurs have not actually returned to the city when one worried Twitter user asked if the post was true.
Dear @channaveer5806,
— ಜನಸ್ನೇಹಿ-ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ/ Janasnehi-Karnataka (@Karnataka_DIPR) April 7, 2020
The post is meant as a joke and is meant to be taken in a humorous sense. Dinosaurs are not roaming near Hebbal lake. Kindly do not worry.
Regards,
Santhosh PS#janasnehi
Meanwhile, many flooded the comments section with their own memes. Actor Ashmit Patel shared a photo of Eiffel Tower visible from India due to low air pollution.
And this ???????? pic.twitter.com/YZ7NtQ1BmW
— Ashmit Patel (@AshmitPatel) April 7, 2020
Others followed suit:
whitefield se charminar dikhra hai sir mere balcony se... nature is mysterious in its own ways pic.twitter.com/6ZRWCxPi85
— Jitendra (@hydbadshah) April 7, 2020
Yes, EVEN I saw this in my backyard, haters are saying I am daydreaming...
— The रायचंद (@v_ashutosh) April 7, 2020
अब बताओ इनको कौन सम्झाये #naturelovers#earthhealing#animalspic.twitter.com/JTD5lP88Kf
Take a look at how netizens are parodying "nature is healing" posts here.
