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Photo claiming to show that the Kishanganga Dam, which was allegedly closed to choke water flow to Pakistan, has collapsed.
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
Newschecker learnt that although India has cut off water flow to Pakistan from the Baglihar dam on the Chenab River, it is still reportedly preparing to taper down runoffs from the Kishanganga project on the Jhelum, contradicting the viral claim that it has already been shut. Similar reports on India mulling to halt the water flow from Kishanganga dam for maintenance work can be seen here and here.
We then ran a reverse image search, which led us to the same photo shared in this June 7, 2023 write-up by China-based Caixin Global. “Water gushes through a breach in the Nova Kakhovka dam in the Russia-held Kherson region of Ukraine on Tuesday. The crucial dam, which formed the country’s largest reservoir, supplied water to large areas of the southeast and Chinese peninsula,” read the caption, crediting the photo to VCG.
“Thousands of residents are being evacuated from their homes after the Nova Kakhovka dam collapsed Tuesday in the Russian-occupied Kherson region. Russia and Ukraine are blaming each other for the destruction. The crucial dam, which formed the country’s largest reservoir, supplied water to large areas of the southeast and the Crimean Peninsula…”, read the write-up.
The same image was featured in this Reuters article, dated June 7, 2023, stating that it was a satellite image showing the damaged Nova Kakhovka dam in Kherson, Ukraine. Similar Times of India and NDTV reports from June 2023 further confirms that the viral image does not show the Kishanganga Dam.
Also Read: Video From 2020 Beirut Explosion Shared As Pakistan Missile Attack Against India
A purported Republic TV report claiming to show the gates of Kishanganga dam collapsing.
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “Republic TV Kishanganga dam breaking”, which did not lead us to any such report by the news outlet, indicating that it may be fabricated.
We then ran a reverse image search of keyframes, which led us to an uncropped version of the viral video on Youtube, uploaded by CBS Texas on May 16, 2019, stating that The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) experienced a spillgate failure on Tuesday morning that was caught on-camera.
We can see the watermark reading “Dunlap Dam”, and the timestamp of 05-14-2019. A similar video by ABC13 Houston, dated May 16, 2019, states, “The GBRA of Texas posted video of a spillgate failure that occurred on May 14. See the moment the middle gate collapsed resulting in the dewatering of Lake Dunlap.” CNN’s report, too, on the failure can be seen here, confirming that the viral video does not show Kishanganga dam.
We then reached out to the Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) of the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), of which Newschecker is a part, who ran the alleged Republic TV reporter’s voiceover past Deepfake-o-meter, where six of its seven classifiers concluded an extremely high probability of the media being synthetic. Similarly, its analysis, using another AI-detection tool Hive, found a significant section of the audio to be AI-generated, further confirming the viral video to be digitally altered and the claim to be false.
Source
Caixin Global article, June 7, 2023
Reuters report, June 7, 2023
CBS Texas report, Youtube, May 16, 2019
ABC13 Houston report, Youtube, May 16, 2025
DAU’s analysis
False
Kushel Madhusoodan
May 11, 2025
Kushel Madhusoodan
May 11, 2025
Vasudha Beri
May 10, 2025
