Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
Photo of Mundakkai village after over 200 people died in massive landslides that struck the hilly areas near Meppadi in Wayanad, Kerala, on Tuesday (July 30).
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact
Newschecker ran a reverse image search, which led us to this Wikimedia Commons picture, stating that it shows the landslide that happened during the 2001 El Salvador earthquake.
A further search led us to the same photo featured in a NASA write-up on the world’s natural disaster hotspots, dated February 2006. “The 2001 El Salvador earthquake-induced landslide, located in a neighbourhood near Santa Tecla, El Salvador, buried numerous homes under tons of earth. The Hotspots report identified El Salvador as being at high risk for landslides, earthquakes, floods, and cyclones,” read the caption of the photo. Similar articles can be seen here and here, confirming the viral image is not related to the July 2024 landslides in Wayanad, Kerala.
“During the earthquake of 13 January 2001 in El Salvador, for example, the Las Colinas landslide claimed the lives of more than 500 people, nearly two thirds of the victims associated with the earthquake,” read an entry in the Encyclopaedia of the Environment, dated January 15, 2021, pointing to the same photo.
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Result: False
Sources
Wikimedia Commons
NASA write-up, February 13, 2006
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
