Fact Check: Viral Elephant Rescue Video Does Not Show the 2026 Nepal Floods

On August 26, 2026, a massive flood occurred along the Nepal-China border. Following the disaster, many social media users shared images and videos purportedly related to the flooding. However, some of this content was unrelated to the disaster and was shared in a misleading context.

One such example is a video shared on X on August 26, 2026, by a user named CodexZeroTR. The 20-second video shows an elephant rescuing a person who appears to be swept away by floodwaters. The video has been viewed more than 6.3 million times, reposted 8,300 times, and liked more than 59,000 times.

However, although the footage is authentic, it is unrelated to the floods that occurred in Nepal on August 26. To determine the video’s actual origin and whether it had previously circulated online, it was analyzed using Grok and Gemini.

The video was first examined using Grok, which indicated that the footage was old. Grok also noted that elephants do not inhabit the high-altitude mountainous region where the flooding occurred and that Nepalese Army helicopters were used in rescue operations following the disaster.

 

However, Grok did not identify the country where the video was originally recorded. Therefore, to obtain more detailed information about its origin, the footage was further analyzed using Gemini. According to Gemini, the video dates back to 2016 and was filmed at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

To further verify that the video was recorded in Thailand, the audio track was extracted from the footage using InVID-WeVerify and examined separately. Analysis of the extracted audio indicated that the language heard in the video was Thai. This linguistic evidence further supports the conclusion that the footage was recorded in Thailand rather than Nepal.

In conclusion, the video depicts a real event, but it is unrelated to the August 2026 floods along the Nepal-China border. The footage originated in Thailand and dates back to 2016, yet it was recirculated in 2026 in connection with a recent natural disaster in Nepal. This case demonstrates how authentic footage can be taken out of its original context and used to spread misleading information. It also highlights the importance of verifying not only whether visual content is authentic but also when and where it was originally recorded.

 

 

If you suspect that a video, image, or audio file has been created using artificial intelligence or deepfake technology and would like free assistance in verifying its authenticity, you may send the link to the content or the file itself to allaboutdeepfake@gmail.com.