Old video of chairs, tables being blown away in Karnataka falsely linked to cyclone Biparjoy

Context

A strong cyclone named Biparjoy struck Gujarat, India, after brewing in the Arabian Sea for more than ten days. It made landfall near Jakhau Port on the evening of June 15. The storm weakened after reaching the coast, but it caused significant damage. According to a BBC report, the cyclone resulted in the loss of two lives and injured 22 people. It also damaged 5,120 electricity poles, leaving 4,600 villages without power, as reported by the Indian Express.

A video recently emerged on social media, garnering over 5,000 views on Twitter, claiming to show the effects of the cyclone. The video shows plastic chairs and tables being blown away by strong winds. A Twitter user captioned it, "Gujarat and neighbouring states are facing cyclone Biparjoy from 13th-16th. There has been very strong wind blowing at over 150km/h causing mass destruction of properties and buildings. The condition is dire but I'm safe and we hope things will get back to normal."

In Fact

We did a reverse Google search on the keyframes of the video and found that the video had been posted on May 6, 2022, by TV5 Kannada, a regional channel in Karnataka. They had captioned it in Kannada, mentioning that the supplies in the airport canteen had been soaked due to heavy rain at Hubballi Airport. Another indication that the incident took place in Karnataka is the Kannada song that playing in the background of the video. 

To gather more information, we performed a keyword search and came across a report on the Hubballi Times, a local news portal in Karnataka. The report, titled "Strong Wind Causes Chairs, Tables Fly," shared the original video and was dated May 5, 2022. According to this report, the incident in Hubballi resulted in one fatality, two injuries, damage to 12 vehicles, and over 70 uprooted trees.

NDTV had shared the same video on Twitter on May 11, 2022, but had claimed it to be a video of cyclone Hasani in Andra Pradesh. However, a local journalist named Arunkumar Huralimath clarified that the original video was from Karnataka, and had been recorded during heavy rains at the airport canteen. He had shared the video on May 5 last year on his Twitter account. According to his bio, he has worked with several mainstream news organisations including Indian Express and Times of India.

The Verdict

The video allegedly showing strong winds during Biparjoy blowing away chairs and tables across a road is from heavy rains at Hubballi airport in Karnataka in May 2022. Hence, we rate this claim as false.