Fact Check: Viral image of heavy traffic at Manali during Christmas-New Year celebrations is misleading
An image is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows visuals of heavy traffic in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, owing to the Christmas-New Year holidays.
Hyderabad: An image is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows visuals of heavy traffic in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, owing to the Christmas-New Year holidays.
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Fact Check:
The claim is misleading.
We did a Google reverse image search on the viral photograph and found a post by the Facebook community, @I.Love.Kullu.HP, dated July 5, 2022.
The photograph was shared with a caption that stated, “Manali Roads now a day… (sic).” The image was credited to the Instagram account of user @theyashhanda.
Taking that as a clue, we checked the user's Instagram and found the viral photograph posted by the user on January 27, 2022. We also found the location of the photograph taken from a different angle, posted on January 29, 2022.
Upon further research, we found the same image shared by a Facebook user with a caption, that read, "Nehru Khund (Kund), Manali, Himachal Pradesh.”
Following that, we used Google Earth View to look up "Nehru Kund, Manali" and discovered that the terrain and topological features near the 'Kund' were identical to those seen in the viral image.
Hence, the claim is misleading. An old image of Manali is shared as recent.