Old video of a flash flood wrongly linked to cyclone Biparjoy

By: Soham Shah
June 16 2023

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Context

After making its landfall in Gujarat on Thursday evening and killing at least two people and injuring several others, cyclone Biparjoy is barrelling towards Rajasthan, where it is expected to weaken into a deep depression today and cause heavy rainfall. The cyclone left a trail of destruction in Gujarat, bringing down hundreds of trees and uprooting electric poles at various places. According to an NDTV update, the power supply in nearly 1,000 villages was disrupted, and at least 500 houses were damaged in the state. 

As Biparjoy traveled for days from the Arabian Sea toward the western coastline of Gujarat, social media was rife with clips claiming to show visuals of the cyclone. A video showing high-intensity flooding in an arid, mountainous region has been shared in connection with Biparjoy. The video seems to capture a flash flood that carried with itself boulders and debris down a river, overpowering a bridge, as onlookers move towards a safe distance. The video was shared with the caption, “#CycloneBiparjoy Save earth. When nature take revenge” and has garnered more than 20,000 views so far. 

In Fact

We used video analysis software InVID to break down the video into multiple keyframes. We then performed a reverse image search using the keyframes and came across an old online post sharing the same video.

YouTube channel ‘Meteored’, which has “spent over 20 years dedicating ourselves to meteorology,” in its own words, had uploaded the video on July 28, 2022. The video title and description claimed that the video captured a flash flood in Uchar Nala in Kohistan, Pakistan.” 

Taking a cue from this, we performed a keyword search and came across a tweet by the account ‘@pamirtimes.’ The tweet, also dated July 28, 2022, had shared the same video in question. The tweet’s caption also said that the footage was from “Uchar Nallah in #Kohistan.” 

Though Logically Facts could not independently verify where the video is from, it is evidently clear that the video has been online since July 2022. This established that the video is not related to cyclone Biparjoy.

News reports by Paksitani outlets confirmed that the Kohistan region was affected by a flash flood just days before the video in question was shared originally. On July 24, 2022, Dawn had reported that the flash floods had caused massive destruction in upper Kohistan. It quoted a revenue official saying that at least 50 houses and some mini-power stations were washed away in the deluge. 

The Verdict

The video being shared in connection with Biparjoy has been on the internet since July 2022. The claim it captures the recent cyclone is false.