Amid Nepal’s Flood Devastation, a Wave of Misleading & AI-Generated Footage Goes Viral on Social Media

As Nepal reeled from deadly flash floods on 26 August, Sri Lankan social media feeds filled with dramatic clips said to capture the disaster, an elephant hauling a drowning man to safety, and a crowd of people being swept down a raging river. The images were harrowing; they were shared widely, and they tapped straight into the anxiety Sri Lankans already feel about sudden floods at home. But some of these videos never came from Nepal at all. Here are the posts that carried the claims and what we found when we checked them.

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Social Media Posts : Claim 1

A video was shared with the caption “How an elephant rescued a Nepali man trapped in the floods,” as shown below.

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The Elephant Rescue Clip Is AI-Generated, Not Nepal Flood Footage

We first checked whether any mainstream news outlet had reported an elephant using its strength to guide a person safely through raging floodwaters during Nepal’s flood crisis. No such report existed anywhere.

We then ran the video’s frames through a reverse image search. The clip could be traced online back to 9 August 2026 – well before Nepal’s floods on the 26th – where it had circulated as footage supposedly linked to monsoon flooding in Assam, India.

Because the footage showed several unnatural, physically impossible qualities, we ran it through an AI-detection tool. The tool confirmed that the clip is AI-generated.

This is therefore not genuine footage. It is an AI-generated video that has been circulating online since 9 August, before the Nepal floods took place.

Social Media Posts: Claim 2

A second video, said to show people being swept away by floodwaters in Nepal, also circulated widely. Two separate clips can be seen stitched together within it.

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The “People Swept Away” Video Is from Pakistan, Filmed Before the Nepal Floods

A closer look at the second video shows the group floating down the river waving to the person filming them, who can be seen cheerfully signalling back. This was not a crowd in distress.

As no international news outlet had reported this as a Nepal flood video, we again ran its frames through a reverse image search. The first clip was originally posted on 1 August by an account named Jhok Rohai.

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The caption said that sudden heavy rain over the Koh-e-Suleiman mountain range in central Pakistan had triggered a massive flash flood in the “Kaha Mahi” river. It described the surge as so terrifying that visitors and local residents fled to higher ground. Yet, the post claimed, while adults retreated in fear, fearless local children leapt into the floodwaters without hesitation, swimming through the currents and laughing as they rode the waves.

Local Pakistani media had also reported on the flood surge in the same area on 1 August, as shown below.

That news report likewise showed a group, including children, enjoying themselves in the river after the flood surge. Jhok Rohai had posted further videos showing people floating and playing in the same river.

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This, then, is not a video from Nepal’s floods. It is footage from a flood event in Pakistan in late July and early August, showing children enjoying the swollen “Kaha Mahi” river after heavy rain over the Koh-e-Suleiman range.

The second clip also Predates Recent Nepal Floods

We could also see that the clip shared as a Nepal flood scene had in fact been created by stitching two separate videos together. The second clip was traced to a post from 18 August – again, a week before Nepal’s floods on the 26th.

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There is not enough evidence to confirm exactly when this second clip was filmed, but here too the people can be seen waving and shouting at those standing on land. A Nepali national named Arjun Thakuri posted this video.

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Conclusion

The videos shared as scenes from Nepal’s 26 August floods are misleading. The clip of an elephant rescuing a trapped man is AI-generated and has been online since 9 August, having earlier been passed off as monsoon flooding in Assam, India. AI-detection tools confirmed it was not real footage.

The video of people being swept down a river is not from Nepal either. It combines two older clips from Pakistan’s Koh-e-Suleiman region, where children were filmed playing in the flooded “Kaha Mahi” river in late July and August. Local Pakistani media coverage and the original posts by Jhok Rohai and Arjun Thakuri, both predating the Nepal disaster, confirm the true origin.

Amid a real and deadly disaster, these recycled and AI-generated clips only spread confusion. Readers should verify dramatic flood footage against credible news sources before sharing.