Fact Check: Photos Taken In 2016 Of Toxic Yamuna On The Occasion Of Chhath Puja Are Shared As New

With the capital city of India being under the constant threat of health emergency owing to the intensely toxic air quality, a series of photographs went viral on the social media as quite a few claimed that those pictures represented devotees praying in the highly polluted Yamuna river. The pictures portrayed the heavily polluted froths, filled with a heavy concentration of harmful chemicals. But, many of the photos were not of this year. Social media users and even media platforms shared a few photos claiming it to be recent.

And if you think the air is the only thing we have screwed up, here is a reminder of what we have done to our rivers.

Say hello to the Yamuna. Or whatever is left of it. pic.twitter.com/5G1ywwz0g5

— Sania Ahmad (@SaniaAhmad1111) November 3, 2019

Even a journalist Prashant Kanojia had tweeted those pictures which again got retweeted approximately 350 times. According to his tweet, the photographs were from Kalindi Kunj of Delhi, clicked on the auspicious moments of Chhath puja. He captioned it “Picture of Chhath Puja in Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj. If it is not portraying death then what it is?”

दिल्ली के कालिंदी कुंज में छठ पूजा की तस्वीर। ये मौत का दृश्य नहीं तो क्या है? pic.twitter.com/6U5tS4uXCP

— Prashant Kanojia (@PJkanojia) November 3, 2019

This pic got shared on facebook as well. One facebook user named Girish Anand posted those pics on his facebook page.

Fact Check:

After checking we found that the pictures in question are not fake and are actually of the Yamuna indeed, but are old ones and were taken in 2016 Chhath Puja. The photographs were originally published by The Indian Express in 2016.

But, in November 2019 the scenario is not very different. There are some recent photographs on various Social media platforms depicting similar situations.

Also Read: Fact Check: No, India Is Not Debt Free, Still Owes Billions To World Bank