Recently, in the early hours of 30 July 2024, multiple landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains hit various places in Kerala’s hill district of Wayanad, including the towns of Meppadi, Mundakkal, and Chooralmala. These landslides killed at least 150 people, injured several others and left hundreds more trapped under mud and debris (here, here, & here). Amid this, a set of visuals is being circulated on social media platforms, claimed to be from these landslides (here, here, here, here, here, here,& here). Through this article, let’s verify the veracity of these visuals.
Claim: Visuals linked to the recent landslides that hit Kerala’s Wayanad district on 30 July 2024.
Fact: These visuals are old and not related to the recent series of landslides that occurred in Wayanad on 30 July 2024. Some of these visuals are from the landslide in Idukki, Kerala, in August 2020, while others are from the 2001 landslide in El Salvador, the 2018 floods in Kerala, and the June 2024 floods in Pingyuan County, China. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon carefully observing the viral video, it is clear that the footage is from a CCTV recording dated 16 June 2024. Additionally, a watermark in Mandarin is visible in the footage. According to reports, the landslides struck Kerala’s Wayanad district on 30 July 2024. This discrepancy makes it evident that the visuals are not related to the Wayanad landslides, as the viral video predates these events.
A reverse image search of the viral video’s keyframes led us to the same video clip posted on X (formerly Twitter) by ‘The Epoch Times’ on 24 June 2024. According to this post, the video was from a village in Pingyuan County, China. The caption reads: ‘On June 16, 2024, the Huangtian Reservoir in Huangtian Village, Pingyuan County, Meizhou City, suddenly released floodwaters. Surveillance cameras captured the process of a yard in Zhangyan Village, Pingyuan County being flooded, showing that the local water level rose by two meters in three hours. The authorities announced that as of 15:00 on June 21, the heavy rainfall disaster in Pingyuan County, Meizhou City, caused a total of 38 deaths and two people missing.’ (translated from Mandarin to English).
Taking this as a cue, we conducted a keyword search that led us to multiple news reports (here and here), which confirmed that these visuals show the floods in Pingyuan County, Meizhou City in the Guangdong Province, of China in June 2024.
Video-2:
Upon carefully reviewing the entire video and translating the text displayed in Malayalam, we found that the text embedded in the video indicates that the incident is from the southern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Further, a reverse image search using keyframes from the viral video led us to a video posted on the official X (formerly Twitter) handle of Reuters on 28 March 2023. This post confirms that the video is from Congo and shows the rescue of nine Congolese miners from a collapsed gold mine. Additional news reports from 2023 that confirm the video’s location as Congo can be seen here, here, and here.
This photo dates back to August 2020 and shows the Idukki landslide in Kerala. A reverse image search of the viral photo led us to several news reports published in August 2020, featuring the same photo (here, here, here, here, and here). These reports confirm that the photo is related to the Idukki landslide in Kerala in August 2020. According to these reports, the Pettimudi-Rajamala region in the Idukki district experienced massive landslides in August 2020, resulting in more than 60 deaths (here, here).
This photo shows the landslide in August 2020 in Kerala’s Idukki district. A reverse image search of this viral photo led us to several news reports from August 2020 featuring the same visuals (here, here, and here). These reports confirm that the photo is related to the Idukki landslide in Kerala in August 2020.
A collage of photos is being circulated with the claim that they show RSS volunteers assisting in rescue operations during the recent landslides in Wayanad. However, a reverse image search revealed that one of the photos in the collage was shared on X (formerly Twitter) in August 2018, with the caption stating that it depicted RSS volunteers helping flood victims in Kerala in 2018. Further investigation led us to a blog post from ‘Vishwa Samvad Kendra Tamil Nadu,’ affiliated with RSS, also from 2018, featuring another photo from the viral collage. Since these photos predate the recent Wayanad landslides, which occurred on 30 July 2024, we can confirm that they are not related to the recent events in Wayanad.
A reverse image search of the viral photo led us to an image uploaded on Wikimedia Commons. The description of this photo states that it depicts the landslide that occurred during the 2001 El Salvador earthquake.
Further search led us to a report published by NASA on its Earth Data website in February 2006, featuring the same viral photo. This report confirms that the photo is related to a landslide caused by the 2001 El Salvador earthquake near Santa Tecla, El Salvador. Additional reports featuring the same photo and confirming its connection to El Salvador can be seen here and here.
To sum up, old and unrelated visuals are being misattributed to recent landslides in Wayanad, Kerala.
