Old Images of Tents at Kumbh Mela Shared Amid Farmers’ Protest

The photographer of the original photo said that it was taken during the Maha Kumbh Mela of 2013.

An image from Kumbh Mela 2013 is being shared as the ongoing farmers’ protest.

(Photo: Screenshot/Facebook)

A photo showing an aerial view of tents set up during 2013 Kumbh Mela has falsely been shared as tents set up at the ongoing farmers' protest site in Delhi borders.

CLAIM

One of the posts with the image said, ‘Picture from world’s largest protest, Singhu border, Delhi’ and it included ‘worldsupportindianfarmers’ in the caption.

The image was extensively shared on Facebook and Twitter.

An archive of the post can be found here.

An archive of the post can be found here.

An archive of the post can be found here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

Upon conducting a reverse image search for the photo, we found that the photo was published on a website called Kerranelamassa.

The article was titled ‘Maha Kumbh Mela, India's largest festival’. The article details the religious conglomeration that is held in India. The article mentioned that the photos were taken by Ville Palonen, photographer and co-founder of the website from Finland.

We reached out to Palonen who confirmed it to us that he took the photo. “Yes, that’s my photo from Maha Kumbh Mela 2013 in Allahabad, ” he said.

He also shared the link to Finnair Blue Wings magazine that carried his photo in their November 2013 editions. The image can be found on page 50-51.

The image that has gone viral recently was published in Finnair Blue Wings magazine in 2013. 

We also found another photograph on Getty Images, which was taken during the Maha Kumbh Mela 2013, that had similar tent arrangements as the picture that has gone viral.

Photograph from Getty Images (L) compared with viral photo (R).

Evidently, an old image from Kumbh Mela was shared wth a false claim that it showed the site of farmers’ protest in Delhi.

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