Old Pictures of Chhath Puja in Delhi Viral as 2019 Celebrations

The photos show devotees offering homage to the sun god standing in waist-deep toxic foam in Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

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CLAIM

Several pictures of Chhath Puja in Delhi are being shared on social media claiming to be from the celebrations held on 2 November 2019. The photos show devotees offering homage to the sun god standing in waist-deep toxic foam in Delhi's Kalindi Kunj.

The pictures were shared by several people on Facebook with the caption “छठ पर दिखी यमुना की डरावनी तस्वीर, जहरीले झाग के बीच महिलाओं ने दिया सूर्य को अर्घ्य...”, which translates to English as, “The scary picture of Yamuna seen on Chhath, women made offerings to the sun between the toxic foam..”

Media outlet News18 Gujarati also published an article on 3 November 2019, claiming to be of this year’s Chhath Puja, with the caption “છઠ પૂજાની ચોંકાવનારી તસવીરો, ખતરનાક કેમિકલની વચ્ચે સૂર્યને અર્ધ્ય”

This roughly translates to English as “Shocking photos of Chhath Puja show devotees offering water to the sun while standing in dangerous chemicals”.

(Photo: Screenshot/News18)

TRUE OR FALSE

The photos are real but the claim that all the photos are from this year’s Chhath Puja is false. Two of the photos, showing the woman in a red sari and the woman in a grey and black sari are dated to November 2016 and were taken on the occasion of that year’s Chhath Puja.

WHAT WE FOUND

On doing a reverse image search, The Quint found the two pictures mentioned above to be from three years ago. They were published by the The Indian Express on 8 November 2016, with the caption “ Yamuna river: Sea of froth welcomes devotees on Chhath Puja”.

They were credited to Abhinav Saha.

The 2016 article by The Indian Express carried the same pictures of the two women standing in the frothy river as in the Facebook post and the News18 article.

The picture on the left is from The Indian Express article published on 8 November 2016, while the picture on the right is claimed to be from the celebration in November 2019. (Photo: Altered by The Quint)

The picture on the left is from The Indian Express article published on 8 November 2016, while the picture on the right is falsely claimed as being from this year’s celebration. (Photo: Altered by The Quint)

The two pictures from November 2016 shows the froth at the level of the waist, while this year, the froth has lessened to knee level. We can see the differences in the two photos below.

Left: Old picture from November 2016, Right: November 2019(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

This year the froth in the Yamuna river, while still alarming, was slightly less. Below are some other pictures from this year’s Chhath Puja in Delhi's Kalindi Kunj.

(Photo: PTI)

(Photo: PTI)

(Photo: PTI)

(Photo: PTI)

Therefore, some of the viral photos claiming to be from Chhath Puja this year are actually old and are from 2016.

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