Blogger warned for fake Gorewada tiger post

Nagpur: The officials of Gorewada Rescue Centre, run by Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM), have tracked blogger who posted fake report on tiger sighting near Gorewada thereby spreading panic among people.
The ‘tiger spotted in Gorewada’ report was published by nagpuroranges.com. It went viral on social media on Sunday creating confusion among the media circles and wildlife lovers.
FDCM divisional manager Nandkishore Kale, who was flooded with calls on Monday about the tiger sighting, said, “I managed to track IT engineer from city Devashish Jain, who works in Pune. He operates the said blog and has admitted the mistake. He also tendered an unconditional apology for the fake news and removed it.”
The nagpuroranges.com had also distorted the pictures of Gorewada leopard that was sighted on compound wall by RFO Nilay Bhoge on Friday morning. The blog said the said leopard escaped from the forest and had entered Palloti Nagar on Katol Road leading to scare among the citizens.
Talking to TOI, Jain admitted he committed a big mistake. He blamed the content writer Mohammed Zia from Jaffar Nagar who sent the report by faking image of the tiger he had received. “Zia works as a freelancer with me and I pay him on per article basis. I should have verified the fact, but we lack professionalism. I have blocked Zia and he will now not be able to post any content on the blog,” said Jain.
This is Jain’s seventh website and his six websites have been closed earlier for lack of writers. During the last few days, there have been a couple of images of wild animals doing the rounds on social media. “These animals are being shown straying from Gorewada forest, which is not true. The other day a cheetah, which has gone extinct from India in 1952, was shown in an image purportedly preying on cattle on Katol Road,” said Kale.