Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag shared a series of four photos, claiming that they showcased diverse beaches across India and encouraging fellow Indians to explore them and encourage domestic tourism. However, BOOM found that two of these photos are from Thailand and French Polynesia.
India and Maldives have been embroiled in a diplomatic row following derogatory remarks made by three Maldivian ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Several prominent individuals including Bollywood celebrities and Indian cricketers called for a boycott of the island country, asking Indians to visit domestic tourist locations instead. The ongoing diplomatic conflict has also led to spread of misinformation online by several Indian users.
Sehwag posted four photos on January 7, 2024, on X (formerly known as Twitter) with the caption, "Whether it be the beautiful beaches of Udupi, Paradise Beach in Pondi, Neil and Havelock in Andaman, and many other beautiful beaches throughout our country, there are so many unexplored places in Bharat which have so much potential with some infrastructure support. Bharat is knowing for converting all Aapda into Avsar, and this dig at our country and our Prime Minister by Maldives ministers is a great Avsar for Bharat to create just the necessary infrastructure to make them attractive to tourists and boost our economy. Please do name your favourite unexplored beautiful places."
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Sehwag's post was also shared on X by several other prominent figures, including Bollywood veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan.
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Fact Check
BOOM found that two out of the four beach photos shared by Virender Sehwag are not from India. We located two photos from French Polynesia and Thailand, while the remaining two are from beaches in Puducherry and Karnataka in India.
1. Photo From French Polynesia
We ran a reverse image search on the viral photo and found a post by verified Instagram user Karl Ndieli, who had uploaded the same picture on July 11, 2018. In his post, Ndieli mentioned the location of the image as Bora Bora Island in French Polynesia.
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Following this lead, we looked for photos of Bora Bora Island on the stock photo website Getty Images, and found several photos showing the same mountain. The caption of the photos state that they were taken at Mount Otemanu, which is situated in the South Pacific on Bora Bora Island.
Below is a side-by-side comparison of the viral picture and a photo of Mount Otemanu on Bora Bora Island in French Polynesia.
2. Photo From Thailand
A reverse image search on the viral photo showed search results which indicated it was posted previously on the stock photo website Pixels. The photo was uploaded on December 25, 2017, on Pixels with the location mentioned as Ko Kham Island in Thailand.
The description with the picture states, "Aerial view of Koh Kham is a photograph by Sasin Tipchai which was uploaded on December 25th, 2017."
We also found a similar picture on the official website of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, showcasing Ko Kham Island in Thailand. Below, one can view the visual comparison between the viral image and the one uploaded by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
Photos from India
3. Photo From Puducherry
We did a reverse image search and found that the same photo was posted by the Facebook page 'I Love Pondicherry' on September 8, 2020. The page uploaded the picture mentioning the location as Paradise Beach in Puducherry (also known as Pondicherry) crediting it to photographer Nicolas Chorier.
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We then found the same photo posted on the photographer's website in his Puducherry collection photo album.
We also found the same picture on a document posted by the Ministry of Tourism mentioning that the photo location as Puducherry.
4. Photo From Karnataka
Using a reverse image search, we traced the same photo which previously posted on March 28, 2023, by the X handle 'Visit Udupi', a travel agency based in Karnataka's Udupi. The post mentioned the location of the image as Mattu beach in Karnataka's Udupi.
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We then ran a search for Mattu beach on X (formerly Twitter) and found a post by Karnataka government's tourism handle carrying similar visuals.
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The video was uploaded crediting it to a travel blogger named Bharath Ramanna. The same video can be seen on the travel blogger's official Instagram profile.