AI-generated image shared as the picture of a railway station in Kerala beautifully decorated with flowers for Onam - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 29, 2023
A photo is being shared on social media claiming it is the picture of a railway station decorated with an abundance of flowers on the occasion of the Onam festival in Kerala. The picture shows a train painted in floral patterns, stopped at a railway station decorated with flowers. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of a railway station that was beautifully decorated with flowers for the Onam festival in Kerala.
Fact: The photo shared in the post is an AI-generated image. The image was created by Aneesh Chakkottil, an employee of the UAE-based Copper and Black advertising company. The divisional Railway Manager of Thiruvananthapuram Division through a tweet confirmed it is an edited image and said the viral image does not show the picture of any railway station in Kerala. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
On observing the photo carefully, one could see the watermark ‘Copper & Black’ at the top left of the image. On reverse image search of the image and by searching with relevant keywords, we found the same image on the Facebook page of Aneesh Chakkottil. Aneesh Chakkottil published the image describing it as a picture of a special Vande Bharat train that is said to start from Kasaragod to Trivandrum on the occasion of the Onam festival.
Responding to a few posts in the comment section, Aneesh Chakkottil confirmed it is an AI-generated image depicting the Vande Bharat train which was expected to start on the occasion of Onam in Kerala. Aneesh Chakkottil is an employee of the UAE-based ‘Copper and Black’ advertising company.
The Divisional Railway Manager of Thiruvananthapuram Division published a tweet confirming that the viral image was edited. The tweet published by DVM Thiruvananthapuram states, “Fake news alert! An edited picture of a colourful train is circulating in social media with a claim that is from a railway station in Kerala. The claim is false. The train in the image is from Kyoto, Japan. Do not fall for fake news“.
Fake news alert! An edited picture of a colourful train is circulating in social media with a claim that is from a railway station in Kerala. The claim is false. The train in the image is from Kyoto, Japan. Do not fall for fake news! @GMSRailway @RailMinIndia @PIBFactCheck pic.twitter.com/kiArZnygJR
A similar image of a train adorned with floral patterns was found on the ‘Pngtree’ website. This site reported it is a train from Kyoto in Japan.
To sum it up, an AI-generated image is shared as the picture of a railway station beautifully decorated for the Onam festival in Kerala.