In addition to photos and videos of heavy rain and sewer overflows, the post includes escape routes.
“Tirupati has never seen this situation in 25 years,” said a message accompanied by images and videos of floods that showed Tirupati and its surrounding areas under water. Social media is flooded with pictures and videos of the havoc caused by the recent heavy rains and floods. Meet the people behind the three social media accounts who discussed the situation.
to make an impact
Shiv Keshav Murthy celebrated a social media milestone in November as his account (@tirupati_the_spiritualcapital) completed four years on Instagram. Little did he know that his Insta handle would soon be airing the floods and devastation caused by heavy rains in the temple town with tourist places, food and events in Tirupati. He says over the phone from Tirupati, “The floods were unprecedented and I had to update people about it.
Twenty-five-year-old Siva had created an Instagram account to highlight various aspects of Tirupati. His photos/videos and what he found – of new restaurants, unexplored places, waterfalls and historic temples – soon garnered a base of 60k followers.
While earlier he used to post about 10 pictures and two videos he gets daily in three hours on social media, now he spends 15 hours and posts 50 videos. Using only his Redmi phone to post, edit and share photos and videos received from friends and followers, he is suffering from pain in his thumb and hand.
“Sometimes I get more than 10 videos and pictures of floods taken from the same area. Since they are short videos of 20 to 50 seconds, I either club some of them or post them that show the severity and more damage. ,
Shiva investigates fake videos with friends and residents of the area and also Google. “I don’t post it until I can confirm its veracity.”
Shiva had considered closing the Instagram account but could not bring himself to do so. “I have created a network of people and being a native of Tirupati, it is my duty to help through social media during this crisis.” He is now preparing for UPSC Civil Services by constantly posting alerts.
provide a platform
“I wanted to clarify the notion that Tirupati and Tirumala are one; They are two different cities. I also want to provide a platform to showcase the beauty of Tirupati,” says Shashidhar K of @beautifultirupathi. He obtains photos and videos through multiple sources and also collaborates with weather blogger Sai Praneeth, (AP Weatherman 96) to share the information.
He has 150k followers on Facebook and 595k on Instagram with constant status updates.
Two recent videos that grabbed attention were the collapse of a house in Tiruchanur near the Swarnamukhi river and the massive flooding on the Alipiri Staircase to Tirumala. “The water video of the Alipiri steps taken over the phone by a follower was helpful and the authorities closed the Alipiri and Srivari Mettu road for two days immediately after seeing it.”
Shashidhar says that common people send these videos / photos to the account. “When I give them credit, other people are inspired to send.” One of his followers traveled from Tirupati to Cuddapah and sent him four videos of a bus stuck in flood waters.
Shashidhar balances his marketing job with his passion for photography. An accident in 2017 left him immobile for six months, paving the way for a social media journey. “I love nature and used to post such pictures,” he recalls. The 100 videos they find every day still keep them on their toes as they check their authenticity. “Since I’m also a photographer, I just ask the sender to mail the photos and ask them about camera settings, aperture and shutter speed.”
access
It was a ghat road pic that put @itsmytirupati’s nitin kumar and pridhvi raj in trouble. The image showing erosion due to landslide was claimed to be on Tirumala Ghat Road. “The heavy rains in Tirumala had created a really difficult situation, but we had to be careful,” says Nithin, who immediately sent it to their networks to clarify. “It turns out that the picture was from Mysore and not Tirumala,” shares Nitin.
During incessant rains and heavy floods in the Tirupati region, both have to regularly filter out fake videos from real. In his seven-year social media journey, he has developed a huge network of friends and followers – Facebook 113k and Instagram 91k – who help filter out fake news. “We ask our friends living in the area to check the place or we call and talk to the residents there,” says Nitin.
B Tech graduates Nitin and Prudhvi, employees of NoBroker Technologies and Logixhealth Pvt Ltd respectively, were among the first to start the @iam tirupathi page in 2014. “We felt that earlier pages related to Tirupati were not giving much information about the city,” shares Nitin. Both used to manage the account while working in Bengaluru, and are now working from home in Tirupati due to the pandemic.
In addition to providing entertainment-focused news and information on tourist destinations, the account promotes new restaurants and salons. Since the pandemic they have been posting on the availability of plasma, vaccines and food during the lockdown. They now post messages on routes to avoid heavy rains and pictures/videos of sewer overflows by tagging Tirupati Municipal Corporation, area politicians and Tirupati Police. Nitin adds that these posts help many people living in Tirupati and also tourists who plan their travel accordingly. “We are delighted when our followers send thank you messages for alerts. It encourages us to do more.”
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