Video of avalanche in northern India is AI-generated
- Published on February 17, 2026 at 05:48
- 2 min read
- By Sachin BAGHEL, AFP India
An avalanche warning was issued for the higher reaches of India's northern Uttarakhand state on January 27, but video shared on social media that purportedly shows snow barrelling down a mountainside and burying onlookers is AI-generated. The clip was previously shared by an account that indicated it was created with the text-to-video AI model Sora, and contains inconsistencies indicative of synthetic content.
"Avalanche in Uttarakhand," reads superimposed text and the caption of an Instagram video shared on February 6, 2026.
The video appears to show an avalanche hurtling down a mountain and crashing onto people and vehicles on a narrow street.
The same footage also appeared in similar Facebook and Instagram posts after an avalanche warning was issued for India's northern Uttarakhand state, as heavy snowfall blanketed the region (archived link).
An avalanche did hit a tourist resort in Jammu and Kashmir on the evening of January 27, with dramatic video shared by the Press Trust of India news agency showing snow crashing into and engulfing the site (archived link). Officials said there had been no loss of life.
While India's Himalayan regions are prone to avalanches and erratic winter rain, the circulating video does not show an avalanche that struck Uttarakhand (archived link).
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video found the same clip had previously been shared on Instagram on January 30 by an account that regularly shares AI-generated content (archived link).
The caption of the January 30 clip includes reference to the text-to-video AI model Sora.
A closer analysis of the falsely shared video also shows there are visual inconsistencies, such as unintelligible text on shop billboards and people on the street watching the avalanche but not reacting.
An analysis of the video using the Hive Moderation AI video detection tool found it was "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content" (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked other false claims around natural disasters that used AI-generated footage.
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