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| - Fact Check: Months-old photo used to publicise low pollution levels in Delhi during Diwali 2022
AFWA's investigation found this photo was old and not taken on Diwali or the day after in 2022.
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India Today Fact Check
This is an old photo that was used in news reports as early as August 2022. Therefore, it cannot show Delhi’s pollution levels on Diwali this year.
Over the years, Delhi's pollution has been a big concern for all. Between 2017 and 2021, Delhi was among the top five most polluted cities in the world. On October 27, 2022, it was in the number two position ( https://bit.ly/3DjUJw6 ).
On October 26, however, the Indian Express reported how Delhi saw its cleanest day-after-Diwali air since 2015. As per this report, the air quality index in Delhi on Diwali day was 312, while it was 303 the day after. Even Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on this matter.
Soon, people shared a photo, supposedly shot at Dhaula Kuan in Delhi, showing clear skies.
One such post claimed, "This is the latest scene of South Delhi's Dhaula Kuan Road on the cleanest Diwali day". Many shared the same photo with the same claim. The archived version of such a post can be seen here.
AFWA's investigation found this photo was old and not taken on Diwali or the day after in 2022.
AFWA Probe
Upon reverse-searching the photo, we found that it was used earlier in many news reports. On August 29, the Economic Times used this particular photo in an article. While the report did not contain a description or attribution for the photo, its headline — “Dhaula Kuan-Delhi airport road beautification project to be finished in 3 months: LG” — suggested it was shot at Dhaula Kuan.
After that, with the help of keyword searching, we found two more news reports that used the same image. On August 11, these reports were published on “socialnews.xyz” and “prokerala.com”.
“Socialnews” captioned the photo, “New Delhi: Traffic moves slow at Dhaula Kuan area due to Raksha Bandhan festival, in New Delhi on Thursday, Aug 11, 2022.” It was credited to photojournalist Wasim Sarvar of the news agency IANS. AFWA has contacted Sarvar regarding how old the photo was and where it was shot. This story will be updated as and when we receive a response.
We compared the viral photo with the original one and they are the same. A comparison can be seen below.
Therefore, it is clear that this is an old photo and is not taken on the day of Diwali 2022 or the day after.
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