A video going viral on social media (here, here, and here) shows a group of men and women vandalising solar panels. It is being shared with the claim that a Hindu priest in Rajasthan told them that using solar energy is disrespectful to the Sun God, prompting the group to destroy the panels. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: The video shows people in Rajasthan breaking solar panels following the advice of a Hindu priest.
Fact: The video shows an incident that occurred in February 2018 at a 100 MW solar plant in Chalisgaon, Maharashtra, where workers vandalised solar panels over non-payment of wages. Multiple media outlets reported this incident back then. The event is unrelated to Rajasthan or any Hindu priest. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video led us to the same video on YouTube, dated 19 February 2018, titled “Solar panels at 100 MW solar plant in Maharashtra vandalized due to non-payment of wages.” According to the video’s description, the incident took place at a solar plant located in Chalisgaon, Maharashtra.
We conducted a Google keyword search and found a media report related to the incident on the Go News 24×7 India YouTube channel, dated 21 February 2018. The report stated that the vandalism at the Chalisgaon plant was linked to non-payment of wages. The same video was also uploaded to their Facebook page on the same day.
We also found that Climate Samurai had reported on this incident in February 2018 (here, here).
To sum up, a 2018 video from Maharashtra of workers vandalising solar panels over unpaid wages is falsely shared as from Rajasthan, driven by religious beliefs.
