2021 video of ODRAF team swept away during the elephant rescue in Mahanadi River shared as a recent one - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 24, 2023
A video is being shared on social media claiming it shows recent visuals of a rescue team being swept away by floodwaters during a rescue operation to save an elephant trapped in the floods. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: A recent video that depicts a rescue team being swept away in floodwaters during the elephant rescue.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows a 2021 incident that took place near the Mundali barrage in the Cuttack district of Odisha. During an attempt to rescue an elephant stuck in the floodwaters of the Mahanadi river, a boat of the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) overturned and capsized due to the strong current in the river. A journalist of a local Odisha news channel and a member of ODRAF lost their lives in this tragic accident. The video does not show the latest accident. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video showing similar visuals was found published by Zee News in September 2021. Zee News reported that a boat carrying the ODRAF rescue team was overturned and capsized by the floodwaters of the Mahanadi River during an elephant rescue.
Reporting the complete details of the incident, several news sites published articles and videos in September 2021. They can be seen here, here, and here. The tragic accident reportedly took place near the Munduli barrage in the Cuttack district of Odisha. As per the reports, while attempting to rescue an elephant stuck in the floodwaters of the Mahanadi River, the boat of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) overturned and capsized due to the strong current in the river. A journalist of a regional Odisha news channel and a member of ODRAF reportedly lost their lives in this tragic accident.
To sum it up, an old video of the ODRAF team swept away during the elephant rescue in the Mahanadi River was shared as a recent one.