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When catastrophic floods tore through Nepal on 26 August 2026, the scale of the disaster gripped audiences across South Asia, and Sri Lankan feeds quickly filled with images of the devastation. Among the most shared were dramatic “before and after” photographs that seemed to show the same location turned from a green, peaceful valley into a drowned ruin. The comparison was emotionally powerful, and it spread fast in both Sinhala and Tamil. Here are the posts that carried it.
Social Media Posts:
A photo claiming to show a “before and after” comparison of the flood disaster in Nepal circulated on social media as follows.
We set out to verify whether this photo genuinely showed the real before-and-after conditions of the area hit by the recent flooding.
Fact Check:
Reverse Image Search Found No Authentic Source
To check whether the image, presented as a before-and-after comparison of Nepal’s flood devastation, showed real conditions, we ran it through a reverse image search. We found no evidence that it was an authentic photo of Nepal’s floods. Not even mainstream media outlets had used the image in their reporting.
We also looked for genuine photographs of the region’s condition after the flooding. Online Khabar had published several real images, but the terrain in those photographs did not match the terrain seen in the viral image.
AI Detection Tools Confirmed Both Images Were Machine-Generated
Given the unnatural features in the viral photo, we ran it through several AI-content detection tools. Both images were confirmed to have been generated using AI.
International fact-checkers reached the same conclusion. AAP reported that fake and AI-generated visuals were flooding social media after the disaster, and a Lead Stories check found the same before-and-after images had been made with OpenAI tools.
Claim 2:
A similar photo comparison also circulated locally in Tamil, presented as before-and-after images of Nepal’s flood situation.
Fact-Check: High AI Detection Scores – Created with OpenAI Tools
When we checked the second photo, we again found no international media report carrying genuine before-and-after images or footage of the flooding. Running this photo through AI-detection tools returned a high probability of AI generation: 99% and 91.7%, respectively.
We further checked whether these photos had been created using OpenAI, and the results indicated they were indeed made with an OpenAI product, as shown below.
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Conclusion:
The before-and-after photographs circulating as evidence of Nepal’s flood devastation do not document any real event. Reverse image searches returned no authentic source, no mainstream outlet had published them, and multiple AI-detection tools rated them machine-generated with confidence above 91.7%, pointing to OpenAI tools as the likely origin.
The Tamil-language version circulating locally failed the same checks. Genuine post-flood photographs published by Online Khabar do not match the terrain in the viral images.
We therefore rate these images False. They were created with artificial intelligence, not photographed at the scene, a finding echoed by international fact-checkers and consistent with our own English report on the wider wave of fake Nepal flood footage.
Title: Nepal Flood “Before and After” Photos Are AI-Generated, Not Real Disaster Scenes
Fact Check By: Fact Crescendo Team
Result: False
