Fact Check | Coronavirus: Photo from 2018 passed off as showering of flower petals during recent tribute to corona warriors

On May 1, the Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, along with the three armed forces chiefs, listed a host of initiatives to give tribute to medical professionals and all others who are helping to tackle coronavirus. One of the initiatives was showering flower petals on hospitals. Since then several media outlet have posted an image of IAF chopper showering petals claiming that it depicts the recent initiative.

Several media outlets and individuals also uploaded the viral image.

Fact Check:

Alt News performed a reverse image search on Bing and found that the viral image was published by UK-based Daily Mail in 2018.

According to the Daily Mail, the viral image is from Republic Day parade in New Delhi on January 26, 2018. The image was credited to Associated Press.

Next, we performed a keyword search on Associated Press and found that viral image. According to the Associated Press, the image was clicked by Anupam Nath on January 26, 2018. However, it is from Republic Day parade in Guwahati, India.

Thus an image from 2018 was falsely shared by several media outlets and public personalities as a recent tribute to “corona warriors”. Readers should note that the showering of petals indeed took place, however, the viral image does not depict the event. Photographs of the recent initiative were tweeted by the Indian army and Prime Minister Modi.