Bulldozer Destroying Street Vendor's Cart is From Chennai and Not Andhra Pradesh

This video is from Chennai and shows the bulldozer damaging and pushing aside street vendors.

A video showing a bulldozer destroying a cart of a street vendor is being shared as one from Andhra Pradesh.

What did users say?: Those sharing wrote that the current Chandrababu Naidu-led government in Andhra Pradesh was hitting livelihood with a bulldozer.

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

Is this true?: The claim is false as the video is from Chennai, Tamil Nadu and not Andhra Pradesh.

How did we find out?: We divided the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

• We found two posts on X by users Hate Detector and Gayathri Raguramm which included the same video as the viral clip. Both posts were recently posted.

• According to the two posts, the video was from Chennai, Tamil Nadu and not Andhra Pradesh, as claimed.

The highway department's crackdown on street vendors to clear roadside carts has left many vendors in distress in #Chennai.

The officials used an excavator to crush and remove the carts in an effort to reduce traffic congestion in #Tambaram.

Visuals of the excavator destroying… pic.twitter.com/h3GYDzwAYC

— Hate Detector 🔍 (@HateDetectors) July 1, 2024

• With a relevant keyword search, we came across an article from India Today from 30 June. It's feature image also included an image which was similar to a frame in the viral video.

• India Today reported that many street vendors were in trouble as a result of the traffic department's crackdown on them in an effort to remove roadside carts in Chennai

• To lessen traffic in Tambaram area of Chennai, the officials crushed and removed the carts using an excavator.

• Images of the excavator smashing carts went viral on social media. The footage showed a bulldozer's claw arm falling on a pushcart, breaking its top, and then pushing it away.

• To verify further, we geolocated the location by searching for more clips of this incident. A Zee News Tamil report showed a wider frame of the incident, which showed Bank of Baroda and 'Ayothidass' in the background.

• We searched for the two on Google Maps and it directly took us to the spot where this incident occured.

Conclusion: The viral video is being falsely shared as one from Andhra Pradesh.

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