Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
Claim
A river appears miraculously for a month until Deepawali in Tamil Nadu state of India.
Fact
Viral Video shows water released from a dam into Cauvery River for Maha Pushkaram festival.
A video allegedly showing a fresh steam of water miraculously flowing down a dry watercourse with the start of Pitru Pakshya in Tamil Nadu State of India is going viral on TikTok. Pitru Pakshya is a period in Hindu calendar dedicated to offer respect to deceased ancestors.
TikTok user @bhandafor posted a video showing a stream of water flowing over a dry riverbed and a few Hindu devotees paying obeisance to the water. Text superimposed on the video reads, “The power of Hindu religion. This river miraculously appears during the Pitru Pakshya and disappears after a month during Deepawali in Tamil Nadu of India.” A devotional tune of Karpura Gauram featuring the voices of Amitav Bachhan and Kailesh Kher is played in the background.
The video posted on October 4 has garnered 7904 likes and 150 users have shared it and 171 people have commented on it until the time of publishing this article.
The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
Newschecker found the claim to be misleading.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the viral video, Newschecker took a key-frame from the viral video and ran a reverse search on it. The search threw up several results matching the viral video. The video was shared on several platforms. (See here, here & here). On checking a video, dated Sept 28, 2023, published on the YouTube channel named Study Point, we found a clue that the footage showed River Cauvery flowing in a village called Mayavaram.
Further, we conducted several searches on Google by using relevant keywords and found an article, dated September 11, 2017, published on Deccan Chronicle. On checking the article titled ‘Maha Pushkaram after 144 years in dry Cauvery, we found that the organisers of the Cauvery Pushkaram 2017 were anticipating the release of water from Kallanai dam to replenish the Cauvery River for the mega event that was held from September 12- 24.
Another article on Deccan Chronicle, dated September 21, 2017, read that “the organisers of the Cauvery Maha Pushkaram 2017 have urged the Tamilnadu State government to release water from a dam and ensure adequate water in Cauvery River at least till September 24 when the festival concludes.”
We also found an article, dated September 19, 2017, published in the Hindu. The article read, “Water released from Mettur dam for the Maha Pushkaram event being celebrated in sacred places along the banks of the Cauvery River.”
Thus, our findings show that the viral video doesn’t show a miraculous event of fresh water flowing down a river in Tamil Nadu, India.
Conclusion
The viral video doesn’t show a stream of water flowing down a river in Tamil Nadu that appears every year for a month until the day of Hindu festival Deepawali. The viral video actually shows water released from a dam into Cauvery River in 2017 to celebrate the Pushkaram festival in Tamil Nadu.
Result: Missing Context
Sources
Study Point /YouTube Sept 28, 2017
Deccan Chronicle Sept 11, 2017
The Hindu, Sept 19, 2017
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
