A video circulating online shows elephants carrying people through deep floodwaters, with posts claiming the animals were recently helping rescue people during devastating floods in Nepal.
The video is real—but the claim that it shows a recent disaster is misleading.
The footage dates back to August 2017, when severe monsoon flooding struck Nepal. In the tourist town of Sauraha, Chitwan, the overflowing Rapti River inundated hotels and left hundreds of tourists stranded.
With roads and other routes flooded, trained elephants were brought in to help move stranded tourists to safer areas. Contemporary reports said around 600 tourists were trapped in Sauraha, with about 300 eventually transported on elephant backs and by tractor trailers toward Bharatpur.
News footage from the time also shows people using elephants to navigate the flooded streets. The location was identified as Sauraha, near Chitwan National Park.
Verdict: TRUE, BUT MISLEADING
The elephants really were used to help people during Nepal's 2017 floods. However, the viral video is old and should not be presented as footage from Nepal's current flooding.
The story is nevertheless remarkable: when floodwaters cut off conventional rescue routes, these trained elephants became an unusual but effective means of getting stranded people to safety.
Fact-check: The rescue happened. The timing attached to the viral post is the problem.
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