A video claiming to depict the rescue of a “188-year-old man” from a cave near Bengaluru, India, has garnered over 34 million views on the social media platform X. Shared by the account ‘Concerned Citizen,’ the 24-second clip shows two men assisting an elderly man with a hunched back, white beard, and walking stick, with the caption stating, “This Indian man has just been found in a cave. It’s alleged he’s 188 years old. Insane.”
The sensational claim sparked widespread debate, but fact-checkers quickly debunked the video. Reports identified the man as Siyaram Baba, a Hindu saint from Madhya Pradesh, who is around 110 years old—not 188 as claimed. X responded by adding a disclaimer to the post, labeling it misinformation and clarifying the man’s true identity.
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Data verification group D-Intent Data also confirmed the video as misleading, explaining that it falsely claimed a 188-year-old man had been found in a cave. The man in the video is, in fact, Siyaram Baba, a saint from Madhya Pradesh.
Further confirmation came from a July 2024 article in Navbharat Times, which validated Siyaram Baba’s identity and listed his age as 109 at the time. The article highlighted that Siyaram Baba is a highly respected saint in Khargone district, Madhya Pradesh, where he is well-regarded by the local community.
Although the video gained significant attention on social media, it has been debunked. Experts have raised concerns about the rise of sensationalized and unverified content online. D-Intent Data cautioned that influencers are increasingly sharing misleading videos to attract attention, stating, “Influencers are spreading videos with fabricated claims to gain social media fame.”
