According to a report published by BBC on October 18, 2021, at least 26 people were killed in a recent flood and landslide in Kerala. In the above context, an image of a man sleeping on a makeshift bamboo bed in a flooded area has gone viral on social media.
The caption, written in Malayalam reads, “ഈ പാവം പഠനത്തിനായി വിശ്വാസത്തോടെ ഹോളണ്ട് സന്ദർശിച്ചു കാണും, ഉറപ്പ് ! അല്ലെങ്കിൽ ഇത്ര സുഖമായി എങ്ങനെ ഉറങ്ങാൻ കഴിയും” (Which reads in English as, “We must visit Holland with visited Holland for this poor study, sure! Or how can you sleep so comfortably.”)
The text embedded in the image reads, “പ്രളയത്തിൽ നിന്ന് രക്ഷപെടാൻ ഡച്ച് മോഡൽ സംവിധാനം..” (English translations, “Dutch model system to escape the flood”).
The caption takes a dig at the Kerala Chief Minister Pinnarayi Vijayan, who in 2019, visited the Netherlands to witness the Dutch model of flood mitigation schemes.
The link to the post can be seen here. Similar posts can be seen here, here and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile did a fact check and found the claim to be misleading.
On doing a Google Reverse Image Search we found the same image was uploaded by a a website Findglocal on August 26, 2020, with the caption that read, “After time is not time
God will ending corona virus many struggle prepare successful.”
Taking a cue from the above image we did a Google Reverse Image Search using the time filter and found the same image was published by AsiaNews on July 17, 2020.
The title of the article associated with the image read, “Assam is in a terrible humanitarian crisis with the floods amidst growing cases of COVID-19. Entire localities have submerged.” The report mentioned that flood had affected the lives of over 33 lakh people in Assam.
News 18 Kannada also uploaded the same image in 2020 in a photo gallery consisting of pictures of the Assam floods.
However, according to a report by Live Hindustan dated July 2020, the image is from Bihar.
NewsMobile independently couldn’t verify the location of the image, but we can confirm that the image is old and is viral with a misleading claim.
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