Video of elephant rescuing man not from Nepal floods
A video posted on Facebook claims that a wild elephant rescued a man trapped in the powerful current of floodwaters in Nepal. However, Dismislab’s fact-check has found that the video does not show any scene from the recent landslides and floods in Nepal.
On August 27, the video was posted on a Facebook page named “Sangbad Pratidin 24.” The caption of the post read, “Wild elephant rescues man trapped in powerful flood current in Nepal.” In the 20-second video, a man is first seen being swept away by a powerful current; in the following scene, an elephant is shown safely carrying him away. As of the publication of this report, the post had been viewed more than 42,000 times.
To verify this claim, Dismislab conducted a reverse image search on keyframes from the video. This led to a 29-second video uploaded on August 9 from the Facebook page of the West Bengal-based news outlet “Ei Samay,” which was an exact match for the video in circulation. The caption of the video read, “Elephant rescues man swept away in fierce water current.” A warning displayed on the video itself read, “ভিডিয়োর সত্যতা যাচাই করেনি Ei Samay Live” (Ei Samay Live has not verified the authenticity of the video).
On the same day (August 9), the video was also posted from the Facebook page of another Indian news outlet, “Sanjay Pera News,” which identified the location as “Assam.” The caption of the post read, “Elephant Helps Save Man During Assam Floods”, and the hashtag #AssamFloods was used.
It is worth noting that Assam experienced a devastating flood in July-August 2026. A cloudburst in the Mon district of Nagaland triggered flash floods that inundated the Sivasagar, Charaideo, Jorhat and Golaghat districts of Assam. By the second week of August, the death toll from the floods had exceeded 100, and nearly 300,000 people had taken shelter in relief camps.
In other words, the video has been circulating in Indian media as footage of the Assam floods since August 9. Meanwhile, the landslides and floods in Nepal began on August 26.
In this context, on August 26, a severe flash flood occurred in the area bordering Nepal and Tibet. Powerful currents in the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers caused extensive damage to settlements and infrastructure in the Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts. As of the publication of this report, approximately 360 deaths have been reported from the landslides and floods in Nepal, and more than 1,300 people remain missing.
Dismislab has previously published multiple fact-check reports on the tendency to circulate old or unrelated videos and images as visuals from new events during various disasters.
