Fact Check: Photo of man sleeping on makeshift bamboo bed is not from recent Kerala floods
NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found the same image in a tweet from 16 July 2020.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 31 Oct 2021 8:53 AM GMT
Hyderabad: BBC, on 18 October 2021, had reported that around 26 people were killed in floods and landslides in Kerala after heavy rains. Following this news, a photo of a man sleeping on a makeshift bamboo bed in a flooded area started circulating on social media. Netizens are claiming that the photo is linked to the recent floods in Kerala.
Fact Check:
The claim is false.
NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found the same image in a tweet from 16 July 2020. The tweet hinted that the picture was taken in Assam as it used hashtags like '#prayforassam' and '#AssamIsDrowning'.
Taking a cue from this, we ran further searches and found the same image in news reports by Asia News and News 18 Kannada from July 2020. The reports confirmed that the photo is from Assam when the state was hit by heavy rainfall causing flooding. Over 2,300 villages in flood-prone areas were inundated and around 33 lakh people were affected. The article by Asia News read, "Assam is in a terrible humanitarian crisis with the floods amidst growing cases of COVID-19. Entire localities have submerged."
However, according to Live Hindustan, the image is from Bihar. It had used the same photo in a report from July 2020 titled "Flood victims sleeping while camping in the middle of the water in Padaria of Sikti." Sikti is an Assembly constituency in Araria district in Bihar.
Although NewsMeter could not independently verify the location of the image, it is clear that the viral image is old and not linked to the recent Kerala floods. Thus, the claim is false.
