Fact Check: Old Photos Claimed To Show Devastation Caused By Assam Floods
The Logical Indian Crew

Fact Check: Old Photos Claimed To Show Devastation Caused By Assam Floods

The Logical Indian Fact Check team investigates the claim that the six viral photos show the devastation caused by the recent flood in Assam.

Amid the devastating floods in Assam, a set of photographs is going viral with the claim that it shows the people affected by the crisis. The six images that are doing the rounds show the damage caused by the floods to tpeople and the place.

The viral post comes with an appeal for donations for relief operations. The link mentioned in the post opens up to the website of "Milaap" crowd-funding.


Claim:

The six viral photos show the devastation caused by the recent flood in Assam.

Fact Check:

The claim is false.

Image 1:


A Google reverse image search of the first photo in the collage led to a report by Scroll dated July 13, 2017.


The image was shared by the Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju during an aerial survey of flood-hit districts in Assam in 2017, news agency PTI had reported.

Below is the tweet:

More than 17 lakh people in 23 districts were affected by the floods in Assam in 2017.

Image 2:


This is the only image in the collage which actually shows a visual from the recent floods in Assam.

According to an Indian Express report, the collapsed bridge is located on the road which connects Doomdooma to Baghjan, in the Tinsukia district of Assam.

A press release by Oil India Ltd (OIL) says, "All movement over the bridge has stopped which is hampering the movement of men and material to Baghjan EPS. On request from OIL, Army personnel will assess the condition of the bridge to find out the next course of action."

The Assam Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) has stated that the Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts are badly affected, accounting for 24,239 and 18,500 flood-hit people respectively. The flood has submerged 19,430 hectares of farmland with standing crops.

Below is the photo as carried by news reports from June 2020:


Image 3:


A Google reverse image search of the third photo in the collage led to a report by Indian Express dated November 27, 2017.


According to the report, the photo is of an eviction drive. The local police had resorted to lathi-charge, tear-gas and firing of rubber bullets to disperse several hundred protestors to carry out an eviction drive in the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary.

The sanctuary is along the border of Guwahati city. Following a Gauhati High Court order, the police demolished over 400 houses illegally constructed inside the sanctuary.


Image 4:


A Google reverse image search of the fourth photo in the collage led to a report by Firstpost dated July 26, 2012.


The image is by the Associated Press.


"Ethnic Bodo women who are victims of ethnic violence cry at a relief camp at Bhot Gaon village in Kokrajhar," reads the caption of the photo.

Image 5:

A Google reverse image search of the fifth photo in the collage led to a report by NDTV dated October 2, 2009. It is a photo feature which shows floods in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh region.


"A woman cries after failing to enter her submerged house at Garlapadu village, about 180 kilometres (112 miles) away from Hyderabad, India, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009. Medical teams were being rushed Sunday to flood-devastated southern India where scores of people have died after five days of unceasing torrential rains, authorities said. (AP Photo)," reads the caption of the photo.


Image 6:

A Google reverse image search of the sixth photo in the collage led to a report by The New Indian Express dated August 2, 2019.

The image is a PTI photo from Assam's Morigaon district, which was flooded last year.


Assam Floods 2020

According to the latest reports, the state disaster management authority of Assam on July 20 stated that 24 lakh people in 24 districts were still affected by rising waters. The death toll due to floods and landslides has risen to 111, of these, 85 lost their lives in flood-related incidents while 26 died due to landslides.

The ASDMA informed in their daily bulletin on July 20 that one more person had died at Sonapur near Guwahati in Kamrup Metropolitan district, taking the toll to 111.

Over 24.3 lakh people continue to remain affected by floods in the state's following districts: Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Darrang, Baksa, Nalbari, Barpeta, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, South Salmara, Goalpara, Kamrup, Kamrup Metropolitan, Morigaon, Nagaon, Golaghat, Jorhat, Majuli, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Cachar districts.

The State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), district administrations and local people managed to rescue 291 people with the help of 125 boats that have been deployed across the state, in the last 24 hours.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343

Also Read: Fact Check: Boy Saves Deer Amid Floods In Assam?

Contributors Suggest Correction
Writer : Aditi Chattopadhyay
,
Editor : Bharat Nayak
,
Creatives : Abhishek M

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