A narrow earthen ridge cuts through a green paddy field, and a small child walks along it, lovingly holding an animal resembling a civet in both arms. Right behind, like a watchful guard, walks a large porcupine, its sharp quills calm, as if the child's affection has made it forget all its fierceness. This fairy-tale scene recently went viral on social media and delighted millions of viewers.

At first glance the video looks like a Hollywood animation or a Disney fairy tale come to life. As the child takes small steps along the field path, the wild animals keep her company with boundless affection. The scene led people to call the child a "Disney princess" or a princess of the forest.

Many who saw the charming scene thought it was from some remote village in Bangladesh, and some news outlets at home and abroad presented it as the beauty of Bengal. But love has no country and no borders.

Investigation found that the scene is not from Bangladesh at all but from a green field in Sri Lanka. When the little "princess" spoke in her sweet voice, she was speaking Sinhala.

According to the fact-checking organisation Rumor Scanner, a Sri Lankan man named Prabhat Silva first shared the video on Facebook on 12 June. The Sinhala caption said: "Little brother going to kuburu with his sister." Several more videos and photos of the same child and animals were found on Prabhat Silva's profile.

Although the wrong claims changed the country, no one mistook the child's love. Her universal love for animals has moved everyone.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.