Fact Check: Rare photos show Musi River flooding Hyderabad in 1908? No, images are AI-generated

Hyderabad: A series of ‘rare images’ of Musi River flooding the city in 1908 is viral on social media, each image being separately shared by different accounts. The posts also contained an aerial photograph of Charminar surrounded by water.

One image was posted on Facebook with the caption, “#Devastating Musi River Floods 28 September 1908. A rare historical photograph showing the catastrophic floods that submerged parts of Hyderabad, claiming over 15,000 lives and reshaping the city’s future. Our Charminar was flooded with the water of Musi river in 1908” (sic). (Archive)

Another image showing buildings surrounded by flood water and wreckage was shared with similar claims. The image was posted on Facebook with the caption, “Hyderabad Musi River Floods 28 Sep 1908.” (Archive)

Posts making similar claims can be seen here, here and here. (Archive 1, Archive 2 and Archive 3)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The images are AI-generated.

Analysing the images closely, we found some inconsistencies such as blurred or gibberish-filled signboards, the presence of telephone towers in the background, the absence of reflections in the floodwater and inconsistency in the water ripples.

The first image also contains a ‘Meta AI’ watermark on it.

This indicated that the image is AI-generated. Using the AI detection tool ‘Was It AI’, we found that it is highly likely that the image contains AI content. Another tool, Hive Moderation, has determined that the image is likely to contain 99.1 per cent AI-generated content.

The second image with the widespread debris also contained the Meta AI watermark that was cropped in half. The image is blurred in several places, and the debris seems to be blending with water and other buildings around it.

To determine whether the image is AI-generated, we used ‘Was it AI’. The tool determined that the image is very likely to contain AI-generated elements.

Hive Moderation has also determined that the image is 90.3 per cent likely to contain AI-generated content.

The Musi River floods of 1908 occurred between September 28 and 29. A Siasat Daily report stated, “Hyderabad received a staggering 12.8 inches of rain in just 24 hours and 18.90 inches within 48 hours.”

The report further stated that the unprecedented rains caused the worst flooding the city had ever recorded, resulting in widespread destruction and loss of life.

Therefore, NewsMeter has found that the viral claim is false. The images are AI-generated.