A video of a tornado-like phenomenon surrounded by dense smoke of clouds and strong winds is viral on social media. The footage features the voice of a bystander who is shocked to see this scene. It has been claimed that the thick clouds were carrying water from the Ganges river at the Allahabad Sangam.
Tweeting the video, a user named Sudhir Srivastava wrote, “This has happened for the first time, clouds are carrying water from the Ganges at the Sangam of Allahabad….” (Archived link)
इलाहाबाद के संगम में गंगा से बादल पानी ले जाते हुए यह पहली बार हुआ है।
प्रकृति का अद्भुत दृश्य देखें….
हर हर महादेव🙏 pic.twitter.com/0wJQ3UUX0C— सुधीर श्रीवास्तव (सोनू) (@sudhirshiv567) August 1, 2022
A user named Amit made the same claim while tweeting a few screengrabs from the video. (Archived link)
इलाहाबाद के संगम में गंगा से बादल पानी ले जाते हुए यह पहली बार हुआ है।
प्रकृति का अद्भुत दृश्य देखें….
हर हर महादेव pic.twitter.com/mIQ1u6kYwX— अमित (@Am_du1) August 1, 2022
Another user named Rakesh Kumar Pandey made a similar claim while posting this video on Facebook.
The video went viral with the same claim back in 2018 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Twitter user Satveer Singh made a similar claim while tweeting the video in 2018. (Archived link)
इलाहाबाद के संगम में गंगा से बादल पानी ले जाते हुए प्रकृति का अद्भुत दृश्य pic.twitter.com/Haiebcc0q4
— SATVEER SINGH (@actorsatveersin) July 27, 2018
Fact-check
Alt News performed a reverse image search using a frame from the viral video. We found tweets posted by Pune Mirror and TOI+ from June 2018. The posts claim that a tornado-like situation was witnessed in Maharashtra.
#Tornado witnessed in #Maharashtra for the first time!! https://t.co/RWrBXuo6x7 pic.twitter.com/TfTFiWWNeX
— Pune Mirror (@ThePuneMirror) June 9, 2018
We performed a keyword search and came across a report by Pune Mirror dated June 9, 2018. According to this article, a tornado-like situation was observed on June 8, 2018, in Ranmala village near Nazre Dam in Pune. After a video of this incident went viral, a three-member team from the Center for Citizen Science (CCS) reached the spot on June 9, 2018. The group performed an investigation and questioned more than 10 eyewitnesses about it. The team gathered various information related to this and also collected videos and photographs recorded by the people present at the time of the incident.
Based on observations and video records, the preliminary conclusion was that the tornado lasted approximately 90 to 120 seconds. It covered a distance of about 800 to 1,000 meters, covering water and land. CCS Senior Meteorologist Dr JR Kulkarni stated, “After observing the matter, our team concluded that the tornado had progressed from F0 to F5 (Fujita scale).”
To sum it up, social media users falsely shared a 2018 video of a tornado that struck Ranmala village in Pune as clouds carrying water from the Ganges river at the Allahabad Sangam.
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