Video Of Srisailam Dam Is Going Viral As Dumbur Dam In Tripura

A video of water gushing out from the gates of a dam is going viral on social media. Sharing the video, users are claiming that this is the Dumbur Hydroelectric Power Project and India has opened its gates without giving any warning, due to which Bangladesh is under severe flood.

Facebook Link | Archived Link.

However, as we investigated, we came to know that the dam is not the Dumbur Hydroelectric Power Project, it's the Srisailam Dam of Andhra Pradesh. Here's the fact check.

Fact Check

We started our investigation by conducting a relevant keyword search, and as a result, we found a press release from the Ministry of External Affairs, India, with the headline "Flood situation in Bangladesh not due to release of waters from Indian dam on Gumti River, Tripura". The press release read, "We have seen concerns being expressed in Bangladesh that the current situation of flood in districts on the eastern borders of Bangladesh has been caused by opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura. This is factually not correct.

We would like to point out that the catchment areas of Gumti river that flows through India and Bangladesh have witnessed heaviest rains of this year over the last few days.

The flood in Bangladesh is primarily due to waters from these large catchments downstream of the dam.

The Dumbur dam is located quite far from the border - over 120 Km upstream of Bangladesh. It is a low height (about 30m) dam that generates power that feeds into a grid and from which Bangladesh also draws 40MW power from Tripura.

Along the about 120 Km river course we have three water level observation sites at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2.

Heavy rainfall has been continuing since 21 August in the whole of Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh. In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases have been observed.

Amarpur station is in part of a bilateral protocol under which we are transmitting realtime flood data to Bangladesh.

Data showing rising trend has been supplied to Bangladesh upto 1500 hrs on 21 August 2024. At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was power outage leading to problems of communication. Still, we have tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data.

Floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting sufferings to people on both sides, and requires close mutual cooperation towards resolving them.

As two countries sharing 54 common cross-border rivers, river water cooperation is an important part of our bilateral engagement. We remain committed to resolving issues and mutual concerns in water resources and river water management through bilateral consultations and technical discussions".

A report regarding this can be read here. Archived Link

Moving forward, we took some screenshots from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search. As a result, we found a YouTube video similar to the viral video. According to the caption of the video, the dam shown is Srisailam Dam.

Archived Link

Further, we found a video report on the YouTube channel Prime9 News, where similar footages were shown, and it was mentioned as Srisailam Dam, Andhra Pradesh.

Archived Link

A comparison between the screenshots from the viral video and the YouTube video can be seen below.

Further, we searched for Srisailam Dam and found a report published in The Hindu on 16 November 2019. The image attached to the report was similar to the screenshots of the viral video.

Archived Link

A comparison between the two can be seen below.

Other images of Srisailam Dam can be seen here, here and here.

The Srisailam Dam is constructed across the Krishna River on the border of Mahabubnagar District, Telangana and Kurnool District, Andhra Pradesh, near Srisailam temple town and is the 2nd largest capacity working hydroelectric station in the country.

Moreover, the Google map images of Srisailam Dam and the screenshots from the viral video were similar too.

This makes it clear that the viral video shows the Srisailam Dam, Andhra Pradesh; not the Dumbur Dam, Tripura.

Conclusion

From our investigation, we can say that the claim is Misleading. The video shows the Srisailam Dam in Andhra Pradesh, not the Dumbur Dam in Tripura.