The recent cloudburst in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district on 05 August 2025 triggered severe flash floods, particularly in Dharali village. The intense and sudden rainfall caused rivers like the Kheer Ganga to overflow, leading to large-scale destruction of homes and infrastructure. At least five people lost their lives, several remain missing, and around 190 people have been rescued so far (here, here, and here).
In this context, a video (here, here and here) is going viral on social media showing a few people stranded in the middle of fast-flowing water being rescued. It is being widely shared with the claim that it shows scenes from the recent Uttarkashi cloudburst. Let’s verify the truth behind this video.
Claim: The viral video shows people being rescued during the recent August 2025 Uttarkashi cloudburst.
Fact: The video is unrelated to the Uttarkashi cloudburst. It shows a 2022 incident from Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh, where five youths were trapped in the Chikli river while taking selfies during a flash flood. The Uttarakhand Police also clarified that the video has no connection to the Dharali disaster. Hence the claim is FASLE.
To verify the truth, we performed a reverse image search on Google, which led us to the same video uploaded by The Indian Express on their YouTube channel on 29 July 2022. The video was titled, “Nalagarh: Five Migrants Land In River To Take Photo, Stuck In Flash Flood Due To Heavy Rains.”
According to the description, the incident occurred in Nalagarh, Solan district, Himachal Pradesh. Due to heavy rains, rivers in the area were in full spate. On that day, five youths entered the Chikli River to take a selfie when a sudden flash flood struck. They clung to rocks in the middle of the river to save themselves. Locals, upon noticing the situation, launched a rescue operation and eventually pulled them out using ropes.
Several media outlets also reported on the same incident shown in the viral video, some using the original footage and others using still images (here, here, and here). The Uttarakhand Police issued a clarification on 06 August 2025, through their official X handle, stating that the viral video being linked to the recent Harshil, Dharali disaster is completely false and misleading, and urged the public not to spread confusion by sharing such misinformation.
While the rescue operations are still ongoing in Uttarkashi, with efforts continuing across the affected regions, including Dharali, where advanced equipment like ground-penetrating radars and sniffer dogs are being used to locate the missing (here and here), the viral video has no connection to the recent Uttarkashi cloudburst.
To sum up, an old video of a flood rescue in Himachal Pradesh is falsely shared as footage from the recent Uttarkashi cloudburst in Uttarakhand.
