DigitEye India Fact Checkers
A video showing river water flowing on a barren land was shared on WhatsApp with a claim that it belonged to the ‘Pitri River’ in South India.
The claim also says that it appears once every year on the night of Pitru Paksha, then disappears on the new moon day of Deepawali. It was also shared on Twitter as shown below:
दक्षिण भारत की यह नदी पितृपक्ष की अमावस्या को प्रकट होती है, और दीपावली के दिन अमावस्या को विलीन हो जाती है ! है ना प्रकृति का अदभुत चमत्कार ? pic.twitter.com/qDo4SOfWLs
— Shriniwas choudhary. (@Sc_Baba03) October 14, 2023
The caption in Hindi reads: “दक्षिण भारत की यह नदी पितृपक्ष की अमावस्या को प्रकट होती है और दीपावली के दिन, अमावस्या को विलीन हो जाती है ! सिर्फ एक महीना बहाव !! है न प्रकृति का अदभुत चमत्कार.” [English translation: This river of South India appears on the new moon of Pitru Paksha and disappears on the new moon day of Deepawali… Only flows for a month!! Isn’t it a miracle of nature?]
When we searched for the video on Twitter, we found that the same video was used in 2020 and again in 2021, in 2022 and the latest was shared on Oct 15, 2023. Hence, it was an old recurrent claim.
FACT CHECK
When we searched for the video with the help of key frames in Google Reverse Image Search, we found the original YouTube video that was uploaded on September 19, 2017. It pertains to a viral clip that belonged to water sharing between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The caption reads: “Kaveri waters reached Mayavaram district in Tamil Nadu.” See the original video on Youtube here.
Hence, the water we see in the video clip was from the Kaveri River entering Tamil Nadu and not the so-called ‘Pitri River’ in South India. The claim that it appears once every year on the night of Pitru Paksha holds no truth in it.
News reports said that Kaveri Maha Pushkaram was celebrated from September 12 to September 24, 2017 and even the water of Kaveri River was released by the Karnataka Government during this period, as per the video. Hence, the claim is totally FALSE.
Claim: Video claims ‘Pitri River’ in South India appears once every year on the night of Pitru Paksha, then disappears on Deepawali.
Conclusion: FALSE. The video clip belongs to the release of Kaveri water from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu.
Rating: Totally False — 
