Fact Check: Kishanganga dam collapses after India halts water flow into Pakistan? No, video shows dam collapse in Texas

Hyderabad: In retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty and took measures to decrease the water flow into Pakistan, particularly from the Chenab River. According to media reports, India has halted water discharge from the Baglihar Dam on the Chenab. It is also preparing to gradually reduce outflows from the Kishanganga project on the Jhelum River.

In this context, a video reportedly of a dam collapse has been circulating on social media, claiming that it shows the collapse of Kishanganga Dam after India halted the discharge of water to Pakistan. The video carries the Republic TV template and audio in Hindi.

An X account, @Defence_PK99, from Pakistan, currently withheld in India, shared the video and wrote, “BREAKING: India's water blockade at Kishanganga Dam ends in disaster, the dam gates burst, and the waters surged back into Pakistan.”

The Hindi audio translates as,“Breaking News: The gates of the Kishanganga Dam, which were blocking the water supply to Pakistan, have burst due to excessive water pressure. The Indian government had ordered the closure of the gates to stop the water supply to Pakistan. However, they could not withstand the pressure from behind and gave way. The government is facing embarrassment as a result. Water supply from the Kishanganga Dam to Pakistan has resumed.”

Similar claims can be found here and here.(Archive 1, Archive 2)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the video shows a spill gate collapse in Texas, US, in 2019. Also, Republic TV did not publish the report, and the audio in Hindi is likely AI-generated.

A reverse image search of the keyframes of the video led us to it being published by Texas-based KSAT 12 News on May 16, 2019. According to the YouTube channel, the footage shows a dam gate collapse at Lake Dunlap. The same video was also published by CBS Texas on the same date, describing it as a spillgate failure at the Dunlap Dam caught on camera.

CNN published the video on May 16, 2019, stating that a surveillance camera had captured the moment when part of a 91-year-old dam in Texas collapsed, causing a nearby lake to drop by seven feet, according to officials.

We also searched the English and Hindi YouTube channels and websites of Republic TV but found no reports of the Kishanganga Dam collapse. This suggests that the old video was manipulated using the channel’s visual templates and added Hindi audio. To verify further, we ran the audio through the AI-detection tool Deepfake-O-Meter. Out of seven detectors, three scored 100 per cent, two scored over 99 per cent, one scored 86.6 per cent, and another scored 35.6 per cent, indicating that the audio is likely AI-generated.

Therefore, we conclude that the video is from 2019 and does not show the collapse of the Kishanganga dam.