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
Monsoon-triggered flash floods have occurred in Nepal and India’s Bihar state
Fact
Old videos actually show massive floods in Turkey’s Black Sea region and Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture
At a time when the country is reeling under sweltering heat with maximum temperatures hovering over the normal limits, many unverified flood-related videos are being shared online with false claims. Newschecker found two such videos purportedly showing monsoon-triggered flash floods in Nepal and the bordering town in the Indian state of Bihar going viral on TikTok. Those sharing the videos claim that Bihar state of India has been inundated after Nepal opened the Saptakoshi high dam at Nepal-India border. Newschecker found the claims to be misleading.
Video 1
TikTok user @yadav_abdhesh7 posted a video showing a massive flood carrying debris flowing down a river in the midst of an urban human settlement. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Oh what happened in Nepal.” The video, however, has not specified the place where the flooding occurred. The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
The video posted on June 5 has garnered 489 likes, 10 users have shared it and 14 people have commented until the time of publishing this article.
Video 2
The same user has posted another video showing flash floods sweeping scores of vehicles. Text superimposed on the video reads, “Bihar state of India has been underwater after Nepal opened one of its rivers. So sad but this is the power of Nepal.” The archived version of the TikTok video can be seen here.
The video posted on June 6 has garnered 23 likes and 3 people have commented on it.
Fact Check /Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim made in the first viral video, Newschecker took several keyframes from the viral video and conducted reverse searches on them. The results pointed us to August 2021 flooding in Bozkurt town in the Kastamonu Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. On checking a video published on the YouTube channel named Balık & Mantar Avcıları on 13 August, 2021, we found that the footage from 0.20-minute timestamp onwards exactly matched the viral video. However, the viral footage was played fast forward.
So we looked up news reports about the Kastamonu flood by using relevant keywords and came across a video report published on the YouTube channel of The Sun on 12 August, 2021. The video report bearing similarities to the viral video confirmed that flooding in Turkey’s Black Sea region claimed at least nine lives and another one person had been missing.
Our investigations corroborated the fact that the viral clip shows footage of massive flooding in Black Sea region of Turkey in August 2021.
Then to check the veracity of the claim made in the second viral video, Newschecker split the clip into several keyframes and conducted reverse searches on them. The results led us to a video, carrying similar visuals, on the YouTube Channel named Tough Gang. On checking the video titled ‘Biggest Tsunami watch till the end’ published on 15 September, 2021, we heard people speaking in Japanese language. This gave us the clue that the video could likely be from the 2011 Tsunami-triggered floods in Japan.
Further, the reverse search also led us to an article titled ‘Japan Impacts from the 2011 Earthquake & Tsunami‘. On checking the article thoroughly, we found a YouTube video titled ‘Tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan’ embedded in it. Taking a clue from it, we conducted a search on YouTube and found the same video, whose visuals exactly matched the viral video. The caption of the viral video posted on the YouTube channel on 31 May, 2015 stated that the footage shows the Tsunami hitting Ishinomaki (Minato), Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, on March 11 2011. However, we also found that the same video was played fast-forward by the viral clip to make the false claim.
Thus, our findings clearly prove that the second viral video actually shows Tsunami-triggered flooding of Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture and the claim that video shows massive inundation of Bihar state in India is misleading.
Conclusion
The first viral video claiming to show flash floods in Nepal actually shows August 2021 floods of Turkey’s Black Sea region and the second video purporting to show inundation of India’s Bihar state after the release of waters from Nepal’s Koshi river dam are misleading.
Result: False
Sources
Balık & Mantar Avcıları , 13 August, 2021
The Sun, 12 August, 2021
Tough Gang /YouTube, 15 September, 2021
Japan Impacts from the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami
A Reinoehl/Youtube, 31 May, 2015
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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.
