A video, showing a helicopter rescuing people from a JCB tractor stuck in middle of a flooded area, is being shared by Times Now, India Today, Zee News English and CNN-News18 as a recent visual of a rescue operation in Telangana's Mancherial district.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had issued an advisory of flash flood risk in Telangana from 10 July. Following which, heavy rainfall warning, the police had advised people to avoid non-essential travel.
However, the video dates back to November 2021 when a Mi-17 chopper of the Indian Air Force (IAF) rescued ten people stuck in the flood water in Andhra Pradesh.
CLAIM
The video was shared as a recent one from Telangana by several media channels such as Times Now, Mirror Now, CNN-News18, India Today, Zee News English The Economic Times, Telangana Today, News9 and Siasat.
(Note: Swipe to check screenshots)
Several media outlets shared the old video as recent.
(Source: Times Now, India Today, Mirror Now, CNN-News18/ Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On conducting a reverse image search on Google by dividing the video into multiple keyframes, we came across a YouTube video from 20 November 2021.
We compared the two videos and found similarities.
The video was uploaded on YouTube in 2021.
(Source: The Quint)
The search also led us to a report by a television channel NDTV from 20 November 2021.
The report carried a similar video which showed IAF chopper helping evacuate people stranded on the JCB. It also stated that ten people stranded amidst the heavy rainfall were saved in Andhra Pradesh.
Taking a cue, we looked for reports about the incident and found an article by an Odia news channel, Kalinga TV from 19 November 2021.
The article mentioned that IAF Mi-17 helicopter evacuated ten people stuck in Ananthapur district of Andhra Pradesh.
It also carried tweets of IAF which had visuals from the rescue operation.
The video uploaded by IAF is shot from the opposite side from where the viral video shared currently has been shot.
We compared the video shared by Times Now with the IAF video.
(Source: The Quint)
Telangana recently witnessed a heavy rainfall and the state was also under a red alert but this visual is not from Telangana.
Clearly, an old video from Andhra Pradesh has been shared as a recent video from Telangana.
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