Old video of heavy rain causing a landslide in Maharashtra misattributed to Karnataka

By: Rajini KG
July 28 2023

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Context

On July 24, Kanthi Shetty, executive committee member of the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), shared a video (archive here) with the hashtag '#ಚಾರ್ಮಾಡಿಘಾಟ್ (#CharmadiGhat).' The video shows a waterlogged road with more water gushing onto it. A landslide appears to have channeled the water onto the road obstructing vehicular moment. The video also shows an earth mover and a truck stuck in the waterlogged road. Shetty's tweet, which had over 51,000 views at the time of publishing, implies that the video shows a flood-like situation somewhere in Charmadi Ghat, a tourist spot in Karnataka's Chikkamagaluru district. Local news channels, such as Suddi Kirana TV, also shared this video on Facebook with the same claim. The archive of the post can be found here.

However, the video is old and not from Karnataka. 

In Facts

A reverse image search led us to YouTube, where 'Namma Kannada Channel' had shared the same clip on July 24, 2021. The video was shared with the title, "Heavy Rain Causes Landslide In Amboli Ghat | Road Closed | Please Take Care and Avoid Journey."

We also found the same video on the Kannada news channel Public TV's YouTube account. The outlet had shared a video report on July 23, 2021, and at the 1:36 timestamp, we could spot the viral clip. According to the video report, heavy rains had caused a landslide in Amboli Ghat, Maharashtra.

Other regional outlets, such as Goa First News, had also shared the viral clip with the same information in July 2021. 

Chikkamagalur district Supereindent of Police (SP) had also clarified in a tweet on July 25 that the now-viral video is from Amboli Ghat and was filmed two years ago. He added that vehicular movement in Charmadi Ghat was normal.

The Verdict

A two-year-old video of a landslide from Maharashtra was shared as a recent clip from Charmadi Ghat in Karnataka. Therefore, we mark this claim false.