Clip of people fleeing heavy waves filmed in India's Kolkata, not during Kumbh Mela

Published on March 4, 2025 at 04:17
Updated on March 4, 2025 at 05:14
2 min read
By Sachin BAGHEL, AFP India

As India's Kumbh Mela was wrapping up in February, footage of people fleeing heavy waves surfaced in social media posts falsely claiming the incident was filmed during the massive Hindu gathering. The clip, which racked up millions of views, predates the festival and is from eastern Kolkata city.

"Kumbh mela," reads a Hindi-language Facebook post on February 11, 2025.

It includes a video, which has been viewed more than six million times, with a text overlay that reads, "Maha Kumbh Prayagraj."

Screenshot of the false post taken on March 1, 2025

India's Kumbh Mela festival, a six-week-long celebration of prayer and ritual bathing in the northern city of Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, wrapped up on February 26 (archived link).

Hundreds of millions of devotees attended the gathering, organisers say.

Despite two deadly stampedes that killed dozens, the Kumbh Mela has been hailed as a triumph by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party, bolstering its carefully cultivated image as a steward of Hindu resurgence and prosperity.

Similar posts on Instagram and Facebook also misrepresented the video that has been available online months before the Kumbh Mela began on January 13.

Reverse image searches of keyframes on Google found a longer and higher-quality version on Instagram on October 17, 2024 (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (L) and the original from Instagram

AFP reached out to Instagram user Ranjit Paswan who said the video has been misrepresented.

"I shot this video in October during the Navratri festival on the banks of the Ganga river near Bhoothnath Temple in Kolkata, West Bengal," he said.

AFP confirmed the video was filmed near the Bhoothnath Temple in Kolkata by comparing it to images of the area on Google Maps (archived link).

Places seen in the video shared online (L) and on Google Maps

AFP has fact-checked more misinformation about Kumbh Mela here.

March 4, 2025An earlier version of article has been updated throughout for brevity

March 4, 2025 An earlier version of article has been updated throughout for brevity

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