Video of huge waves hitting jetty is old, unrelated to cyclone Biparjoy

By: Ishita Goel
June 13 2023

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Context

Cyclone Biparjoy has intensified into an "extremely severe cyclonic storm," according to India's weather forecasting agency India Meteorological Department (IMD). According to IMD, it is expected to cross Gujarat's Saurashtra and Kutch regions and adjoining Pakistan coasts and make landfall between Mandavi and Karachi on June 15, 2023. 

Against this backdrop, a video showing huge waves hitting a jetty on the water is viral on social media with the claim that it is from Gujarat. People can also be seen on the jetty, running from the huge waves. Twitter users shared it with a caption: #CycloneBiparjoyUpdate "Huge wave pushing towards the bridge at the Bet Dwarka." 

However, this is an old video falsely attributed to cyclone Biparjoy.

In Fact

Through reverse image search, we traced the video back to 2017. YouTube user "Dweepdiary Lakshadweep" uploaded the video on August 26, 2017, captioning it, "Minicoy Eastern Jetty Waves Attack." The description reads, "Huge waves attacked Minicoy Island Eastern Jetty on 23/08/2017." The description added that no casualties were reported, but some local catamarans were destroyed in Agatti and Chetlat Island.

Minicoy Island is an island in the Indian union territory of Lakshadweep.

In August 2017, another YouTube user named 'LAKSH. DWEEP' shared the video with the caption "Minicoy Eastern Jetty ROUGH SEAS."

We compared the viral video to the two aforementioned videos and were able to match the people running from the wave and the bridge.

We also geolocated the Minicoy Eastern Jetty on Google Maps. We found images of the jetty posted by Asim Akhtar in 2017 and 2018. The images show a resemblance between the structure of the bridge in the viral video and the image on Google Maps. Also, the T-shape of the jetty as seen on Google Earth matches the viral video at 0:01 second and the YouTube video by Dweepdiary Lakshadweep at 0:56. In the video, the jetty appears to be L-shaped as it is shot from a side-angle. 

This video has been recirculated over several years during several cyclones. India Today, in 2021, reached out to K Bahir, the chief editor of “Dweepdiary Lakshadweep,” an online news portal in the region. Bahir confirmed that "the video was captured from one of the south-end islands of Lakshadweep named Minicoy" and added that a local suffered minor injuries trying to capture the video.

The Verdict

The video shows the Eastern Jetty at Minicoy Island, Lakshadweep, and has been falsely linked to the ongoing cyclone Biparjoy.