A video of an elephant rescuing a man from floodwaters has been shared online with the suggestion that it shows the recent flooding in Nepal.
One post claims: “In Nepal, elephants were seen saving people from the devastating Flood”, while another includes “#Nepal” in the caption.
We’ve not been able to verify the origins of the footage ourselves, but this video has been online since at least 9 August, more than two weeks before yesterday’s flash flooding in Nepal. Several hundred people have been confirmed dead following the disaster, which reportedly took place after the collapse of part of a Himalayan glacier.
The clip was posted on YouTube on 9 August by the Bangladeshi news site Nagorik Protidin. It includes overlaid text which says, in Bengali: “Pet elephant saves owner from flood”.
Join 74,000 newsletter subscribers who trust us to check the facts
Sign up to get weekly updates on politics, immigration, health and more.
Subscribe to weekly email newsletters from Full Fact for updates on politics, immigration, health and more.
Our fact checks are free to read but not to produce, so you will also get occasional emails about fundraising
and other ways you can help. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information about how we use your data
see our Privacy Policy.
The same video was also posted to Facebook on the same day by an Indian news site which claimed it was filmed during flooding which struck the country’s Assam region in July.
We often see miscaptioned videos and images circulating in the aftermath of natural disasters. It’s important to consider whether what you are seeing online is accurate before sharing. Our guides to identifying misleading images and videos can help you do this.
