Old image of flooded temple in West Bengal falsely linked to Bangladesh floods

What's the claim?

Social media users have shared an image of a partially submerged temple featuring three orange-red spires, claiming it to be from Bangladesh. The country is currently experiencing severe flooding following the heavy monsoon rains and overflowing rivers. 

The image is being circulated amid reported accusations that India caused the floods by opening the sluice gates of the Dumbur Dam in Tripura. There is no evidence for such claims, and India's Ministry of External Affairs has also clarified that the dam is nearly 120 kilometers from the border and has attributed the floods to heavy rainfall.

In this context, the image of the partially submerged temple has been shared on X (formerly Twitter) with captions such as, "India opened their Dams, created floods. A mandir in Bangladesh is now under water (sic)." Archives of the posts can be found here, here, here, and here.

Screenshots of the X posts. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the image is of the Kapil Muni Temple on Sagar Island in the Sunderbans, West Bengal. 

What did we find?

On conducting a reverse image search, we found that the viral image is a mirrored version of one published by The Hindu on August 24, 2019. 

The Hindu article, titled "Walling off the sea to save Sunderbans temple in West Bengal," reported on the Kapil Muni Temple on Sagar Island, which is threatened by rising seas. The report highlighted efforts to protect the temple, then located 400 meters from the sea, which could be submerged in the near future.

We also found some YouTube videos (archived here and here) from at least five years ago featuring the Kapil Muni Ashram Temple, which shows the same structure as seen in the viral image. Additionally, stock images of the temple are available on Alamy and Getty Images.

On checking Google Maps, we were further able to confirm that the viral photo is of the Kapil Muni Temple in West Bengal.

Is Kapil Muni Temple currently flooded? 

The Kapil Muni Temple is located at the southern tip of West Bengal, where the Ganges River meets the Bay of Bengal. As of August 2024, the temple itself has not been flooded, though erosion has affected the surrounding area. In July 2024, Telegraph India reported that experts were set to visit Sagar Island to address the erosion, exacerbated by recent high tides. 

The verdict

An old image of the flooded Kapil Muni Temple on Sagar Island in West Bengal has been falsely shared with a claim that it shows a Hindu temple in Bangladesh.