Following reports of decomposed bodies being found in the Ganga over a couple of days, reports emerged that several bodies were found buried in sand at two locations along the Ganga river in the Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh. Visuals of the site were widely shared on social media.
Many mainstream media houses like NDTV, Hindustan Times, India TV, DNA and Zee News also reported the same.
Rae Bareli ADM calls viral video showing bodies buried in the sand ‘misleading’
However, the administration in Rae Bareli district in Uttar Pradesh has confirmed that the viral videos showing bodies buried in the sand at Gegaso ghat is indeed “misleading and false”. ANI quoted Raebareli ADM (E) Ram Abhilash saying that ADM (Lalganj) along with CEO, local police and SHO inspected the ghat but didn’t find anything as such.
“Misinformation is being spread”, said Ram Abhilash, debunking the viral video that showed multiple bodies buried in sand.
Misinformation is being spread. ADM (Lalganj) along with CEO, Police & SHO inspected the ghat but didn’t find anything such as such: Raebareli ADM (E) Ram Abhilash on a viral video showing many bodies buried in the sand at Gegaso ghat pic.twitter.com/tScBaNywdN
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 14, 2021
Old pictures of corpses floating in the water passed off as current
Similarly, after reports of 100 unidentified and decomposed bodies found floating in the Ganga emerged, two separate images showing corpses floating in the river Ganga started doing the round on social media. One of the images showed dogs scavenging on several decomposed bodies floating in the water.
Aam Aadmi Party MP Sushil Kumar Gupta shared the photo on his Facebook page. The archive of the post can be viewed here.
Another image which did the rounds with a similar claim showed vultures and crows flying over floating dead bodies.
These two images went viral on social media with many users sharing them as that of the recent incident. However, these two images being passed off as current are actually from 2015.
A reverse image search of the first image found that the image was uploaded on the stock photo website Getty Images on 14 January 2015.
The second photo of vultures and crows flying around near the river is also from the same incident. This photo on Getty Images also states that it was taken on January 14, 2015, in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh at the Pariyar ghat.
In 2015, ANI had also Tweeted the same image with a caption: “Scores of dead bodies float in river Ganga and its bank in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district”.
Scores of dead bodies float in river Ganga and its bank in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district pic.twitter.com/ZLEVe6F3ZB
— ANI (@ANI) January 13, 2015
On searching, it was found that many media houses like The Indian Express and NDTV had reported this incident on January 14, 2015.
Malayalam language news channel Asianet News Network, which also shared one of the images, apologised after learning that the image was that from 2015.
This is an error that shouldn’t have happened .
— Asianet News (@AsianetNewsML) May 14, 2021
The photograph was removed from the gallery once it was pointed out. We are extremely sorry for the error.
Though dead bodies were found in Ganga, these viral visuals doing the round on social media are not recent
So it is sufficiently clear now, that though several dead bodies have been recovered from Ganga in the past week, these viral images of scavenger dogs and crows gathering around the bodies in the river are from 2015 and according to the Rae Bareli administration, the viral video showing many bodies buried in the sand at Gegaso ghat is also misleading and false.