DigitEye India Fact Checkers
As heatwave gripped the country, an interesting video is being shared on social media depicting how motor cyclists are being relieved with the spraying of water on roads. The video claimed that the town of Churu in Rajasthan, upon hitting 50 degrees Celsius, reached out to provide relief to motor cyclists the unique way.
The video was shared with a caption in Hindi that reads, ‘राजस्थान के चुरू में आज 52 डिग्री तापमान दर्ज किया गया है ।आने-जाने वाले यात्रियों पर पानी छिड़कने का आदेश दिया गया है’[Translated into English: In Churu, Rajasthan, today’s temperature has been recorded at 52 degrees Celsius. Orders have been given to sprinkle water on incoming and outgoing passengers.]
We found that the same video was uploaded on NaMo Youtube channel titled, “Rajasthan Heat wave affect: spraying water on Road traffic” as seen below:
FACT-CHECK
Digiteye India received a request on its WhatsApp tipline to fact-check the claim. Upon closer scrutiny of the video, we found the logo of Dawn, which is a Pakistan-based news entity. Further, when we checked for the authenticity of the video, taking a few key frames and checking them on Google Reverse Image Search, the results showed that the video is five years old and shared in Pakistan.
Dawn’s YouTube channel carried the report titled “Karachi walon ka garmi se bura haal,” [Englsih: Karachi people face worst situation due to summer] and it was dated May 30, 2018.
The news was also reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) titled, “Heatwave in Pakistan’s Karachi during Ramadan kills dozens,” dated May 22, 2018, where the images of men spraying water on motorists were published. Since the heatwave coincided with the month of Ramadan, people resorted to pouring water on their bodies to provide relief from possible heat stroke, the report said.
Hence, an unrelated video from Pakistan has been used to pass off as that of heat relief measure in Rajasthan.
Claim: Video shows spraying of water on motorcyclists on roads in Rajasthan due to severe heatwave.
Conclusion: The claim is false. An old video from Karachi in Pakistan has been used to claim that it was in Rajasthan recently.
Rating: Misrepresentation — 
