Fact-Check: Image From Peru Shared as Condition of Uttarakhand's Joshimath

The 2018 picture is from the Cusco region of Peru and showed the impact of a landslide.

Fact-Check | The picture is not from Joshimath, Uttarakhand. 

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A picture showing huge cracks and crevices on what looks like a hill is being shared on the internet with a claim that it is from Uttarakhand's Joshimath.

Who shared it?: A Facebook page called Tatva India shared the image on its handle with a caption that said 600 families from "sinking Joshimath" will be shifted to safer locations.

(An archive of the post can be seen here).

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

What is the truth?: While the Joshimath area has experienced landslides, this picture is neither recent nor it is from India.

• It is from March 2018 and is from the Cusco region of Peru.

• The Ministry of Defence of Peru uploaded some pictures on its official Twitter handle, and we found that it also carried the viral image.

• The post was shared with a caption in Spanish, which loosely translates to, "Minister of Defense, Jorge Kisic, together with the regional governor of Cusco, @EdwinLiconaGRC , carried out an inspection overflight in an area affected by land displacement in the district of Llusco, #Cusco."

How did we find out?:

• A reverse image search led us to the viral image uploaded on the website of Wikimedia Commons.

• The image was uploaded with the caption, "A 15 March 2018 image of a landslide near Cusco, Peru."

• It was attributed to Galeria del Ministerio de Defensa del Peru, which translates to Gallery of the Ministry of Defense of Peru.

We could find the same image uploaded in 2018.

(Source: Wikimedia Commons/Screenshot)

• Further, we found the same picture uploaded on the Flickr account of the Ministry of Defence of Peru.

What happened in Peru?: According to reports, the Peruvian government had declared a state of emergency in Cusco after a landslide severely destroyed homes, highways, and roads.

The context: The Joshimath area in Uttarakhand was declared disaster-prone, with more than 700 houses being damaged due to land subsidence. People are now being evacuated to safety zones.

CM Dhami announces relief: Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami has announced a compensation of Rs 1.5 lakh for all the families that have been impacted in Joshimath. The priority would be given to those families who would have to be relocated.

Conclusion: An old image from Peru is being shared to claim it shows the condition of Joshimath.

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