Unrelated old videos shared as the visuals of landslides and floods amidst heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh and other North Indian states - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 19, 2023
Update (19 September 2023):
Another video is being shared on social media claiming that the visuals show the cloud burst and floods that occurred recently in Himachal Pradesh. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing the cloudburst and floods that recently occurred in Himachal Pradesh.
Fact: The post shared a 2016 video of flash floods that occurred at Sangihe islands in the South Sulawesi province of Indonesia. The video shared in the post is old and has nothing to do with Himachal Pradesh. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video showing similar visuals was found published by the ‘iNews’ YouTube channel on 23 June 2016. The ‘iNews’ channel reported it is the visuals of flash floods that occurred at Sangihe islands in the South Sulawesi province of Indonesia. Sharing the photos showing similar visuals, several news sites published articles reporting the same information. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post is old and has nothing to do with Himachal Pradesh.
Update (27 July 2023):
Video 13:
A video is being shared on social media claiming that it shows recent visuals of devastating floods sweeping away army trucks in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.
However, on reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, the same video was found published by several news channels in 2018. They can be seen here, here, and here. All these news channels reported it as the visuals of flash floods sweeping away army vehicles in Arunachal Pradesh. The video shared in the post is old and has nothing to do with Jammu and Kashmir.
Update (19 July 2023):
Video 12:
A video is being shared on social media claiming that it shows recent visuals of devastating floods caused by heavy rains near the Nangal Dam in Punjab.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video showing similar visuals was found published by the DD News Himachal channel in September 2018. DD News reported that the visuals show the floods near Baalu bridge connecting several sub-divisions of Chamba district in Himachal Pradesh. Reporting the details of floods caused by the Ravi River in the Chamba district, several news sites published articles in 2018. The video shared in the post is old and does not show the visuals near the Nangal Dam.
Update (18 July 2023):
Video 10:
A video is being shared on social media claiming it as the latest visuals showing devastating floods caused by heavy rainfalls in Punjab. But the video originally shows tsunami waves surging into the Ishinomaki city of Japan in 2011. Earlier, when the same video was shared on social media claiming it is the visuals from Pakistan and China, Factly published fact-check articles debunking those claims. Those articles can be seen here and here.
Video 11:
Another video is being shared on social media claiming it as visuals showing recent floods in India. On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video showing similar visuals was found published by a YouTube channel in August 2020. This YouTube channel described it as the visuals showing floods in Jaipur, caused by heavy rains in the city, in August 2020. Earlier, when some of these video clips were shared on social media as the visuals showing floods in Delhi and Rajasthan’s Jodhpur, Factly published fact-check articles debunking those claims. Those fact-check articles can be seen here and here.
Update (13 July 2023):
Video 6:
A video is being shared on social media claiming it is the visuals of a landslide that occurred because of incessant rains in the Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video showing similar visuals was found published by the Times of India news site on 30 July 2021. The description of the video states, “A major landslide occurred in Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district bringing down around a 100-meter stretch of national highway 707 connecting Paonta Sahib with Shillai-Hatkoti. The road collapsed at Kali Dhank (Barwas) in the Sirmaur district”. Reporting the same, several other news sites published the same video in 2021.
Video 7:
Another video is being shared on social media claiming that it shows the recent visuals of a building collapse because of a landslide in Shimla.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, similar visuals were found in a video published by ‘The Tribune’ news site on 30 September 2021. The title of the video states, “Building collapses at Kachighati in Shimla; no loss of life”. ABP News published a video of this incident and reported-“Landslide triggered by recent rains has led to the collapse of an 8-storey building in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla. No loss of life has been reported in the incident.”
Video 8:
A video is being shared on social media claiming it shows visuals of flooded railway tracks at Nallasopara railway station because of recent heavy rains in Mumbai.
But it is a five-year-old video filmed at the Nallasopara railway station on the outskirts of Mumbai. NDTV published the same video on 21 September 2017, with the description, “A video of a train rushing past a flooded station has gone viral on social media. Filmed at Nallasopara Station on the outskirts of Mumbai, the train zooms past the station creating a burst of water from the tracks engulfing the entire platform and leaving unsuspecting commuters drenched.”
Video 9:
Another video is being shared on social media claiming it is the recent visuals of a crocodile spotted wandering in a waterlogged street.
But on reverse image search, we found that the video shows an old incident from Shivpuri district in Madhya Pradesh. The video was captured in August 2022, at a residential colony in Shivpuri. Earlier, when the same video was shared on social media claiming that the video was shot in the Aligarh district of Uttar Pradesh, Factly published a fact-check article debunking that claim.
Update (12 July 2023):
Video 5:
Another video is being shared on social media claiming it as recent visuals showing a landslide in Himachal Pradesh.
However, the video shared in the post shows the visuals of a landslide that took place in the Carseggio area in the Santerno valley of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. The incident reportedly took place in May 2023. The video is old and has nothing to do with the devastating landslides and flash floods caused by recent incessant rains in Himachal Pradesh.
Published (11 July 2023):
Amidst torrential rainfall leading to destructive landslides and flash floods in various parts of North India, numerous video clips are circulating on social media that allegedly show the recent incidents due to floods and landslides in Himachal Pradesh and other rain-affected states in North India. Those videos can be seen here, here, here, and here. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Recent videos showing the landslides and flash floods caused because of incessant rains in Himachal Pradesh and other North Indian states.
Fact: All the videos shared in the post are old and have nothing to do with the devastating rainfalls leading to landslides and floods recently in Himachal Pradesh and other North Indian states. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
Video 1:
The post shared a video of a car getting swept away by heavy floods and claims it is the scary recent visuals from Himachal Pradesh. On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video showing similar visuals was tweeted by a user in May 2023. This user mentioned that the incident had taken place in Nicaragua. Reporting the complete details of the incident, several news websites published articles. They can be seen here and here. Earlier, when the same video was shared the visuals of a car drowning in a flooded stream in Karnataka’s Dandeli, Factly published a fact-check article debunking that claim.
Video 2:
Another video is being shared on social media claiming it is the recent visuals showing a landslide in Manali of Himachal Pradesh. On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video with similar visuals was found published by ‘The Tribune’ news site, with the title, “Jammu-Srinagar highway closed due to shooting stones in Ramban”, in July 2019. Several other news sites published the same video reporting the same information in 2019. They can be seen here and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post is old and has nothing to do with the recent landslides caused because of incessant rains in Himachal Pradesh.
Video 3:
This video is being shared on social media claiming that it shows the recent visuals from the Bhakra Nangal Dam after the dam gates released the excess water from the reservoir. But it is a three-year-old video taken at Pawna dam in Maharashtra. The video was captured in 2019 when the Pawna dam opened its gates and released the excess water from the reservoir. The video shared in the post is old and is not from the Bhakra Nangal dam in Himachal Pradesh.
Video 4:
Another video is being shared on social media claiming it is the recent visuals of a crocodile spotted in the waterlogged streets of Ambala city in Haryana. But the video shows old visuals of a crocodile spotted in the residential areas of Vadodara during the floods back in 2019. The video shared in the post is old and has nothing to do with Ambala City in Haryana. Earlier, when the same video was shared as the visuals of a crocodile spotted in waterlogged streets in Hyderabad, Factly published a fact-check article debunking that claim.
To sum it up, unrelated old videos were shared as the recent visuals of landslides and floods amid heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh and other states in North India.