As Puri in Odisha gears up to celebrate the state’s most auspicious occasion, Rath Yatra. Drone light display video The incident surrounding the Jagannath temple spread rapidly.
The video features a drone It forms the shapes of Lord Jagannath, Subhadra and Balaram and the chariots used to transport them. The drone also formed the Hindi words “Jai Jagannath, Puri Dham, Rath Yatra” and hundreds of devotees captured the moment on their mobile phones.
India Today Fact Check found that the video was generated by AI. Puri Jagannath Temple will be a ‘no-fly zone’ from October 2025.
our probe
A search using Odia keywords did not find any results for the recent drone light show over Puri Jagannath temple.
As a result of a reverse image search of viral video frames, Instagram post featuring the clip. Its caption clearly states that the video was created using AI tools. The Google Gemini watermark is also visible within the video, but is partially obscured by another watermark.
Google’s AI detection tool SynthID concluded that the video was generated using Google’s AI tools. Another AI detection tool, Hive Moderation, also had a 92.9% chance of being synthetic media.
In an interview with India Today Fact Check, Puri City SP Prateek Singh admitted that the video was a composite as the administration never allowed objects to fly over the temple premises. He said aircraft are also avoiding over the temple out of respect and the district administration has imposed separate regulations. Drones are prohibited within a 5km radius From July 16th to July 27th, around Puri town with views of Rath Yatra.
In addition, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has confirmed that the Jagannath Temple “Red Zone”will be declared a permanent no-fly zone in October 2025 due to security concerns. This will come into effect on September 26, 2025 and remain in effect until September 25, 2028. Violators may face legal action and a fine of up to Rs 100,000.
Therefore, it is clear that the viral clip does not show what actually happened.
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