Verdict: False. The viral photo claiming to show the Bangladesh Forest Department's new uniform — tiger-stripe shirts paired with snake-skin-print trousers — is AI-manipulated. No such uniform exists.
The Viral Claim
The image shows two men posing in what looks like official attire: shirts with bold tiger stripes, trousers covered in snake-skin-scale patterns, complete with ID cards, badges, nameplates, and logo-engraved belts. Captioned "New uniform of the Bangladesh Forest Department," it exploded across Instagram (over 319,000 likes), X, and TikTok, where one clip breaking down the hoax drew hundreds of thousands of views.
The internet, to its credit, had fun first and asked questions later. "Gonna confuse the snakes and tigers at the same damn time," one user wrote. Another: "got tiger on top, python on the bottom… full ecosystem."
The Fact Check
Fact-checkers at NewsMeter, FactCrescendo, and NewsMobile all reached the same conclusion: the image is fake. Their investigation found the original photograph, published by The Business Standard on April 21, 2026 — showing the same two officers, same background, same pose — but wearing the proposed new uniforms of the Bangladesh Police: plain teal, blue, and khaki. Someone used AI to swap the clothes for animal prints.
AI-detection tools back this up. Sight Engine rated the viral image 94% likely to be a deepfake, and Hive Moderation flagged strong signs of AI-based alteration.
What the Real Story Was
The genuine news behind the photo is far less exotic. Bangladesh's Police Headquarters had proposed revising police uniforms after frontline officers expressed dissatisfaction with the current "iron"-coloured shirts and "coffee"-coloured trousers — officers reported facing ridicule on social media, hurting morale. The proposal: light olive shirts for Metropolitan Police, deep blue for district units, khaki trousers for all. Nothing with stripes, nothing with scales.
Why It Matters
The episode is a textbook case of how quickly AI-manipulated images can outrun the truth — the fake uniform racked up hundreds of thousands of likes before fact-checks caught up. As AI image tools get better, the old rule applies double: if a photo looks too wild to be official policy, it probably isn't.
Watch: this viral TikTok breakdown walks through how the "Bangladesh Forest Department uniform" photo was debunked as AI-manipulated.