Towards the end of June 2024, Haridwar in Uttarakhand experienced flash floods, leading to overflowing rivers. Houses and vehicles were swept away during these floods. In the first week of July 2024, Himachal Pradesh faced similar flash floods. In this context, a set of visuals is being circulated, claimed to be from these floods (here, here, here, & here). This article fact-checks the accuracy of these claims.
Claim: Visuals showing the recent floods that affected Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh in June & July of 2024.
Fact: These visuals are not related to the recent floods in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh in June and July of 2024. A few of these images are from Japan, while others depict floods in India, but they are old and unrelated to the recent floods. Hence the claim made in the post is Misleading.
Recently in June & July of 2024, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh experienced flash floods, causing several cars to be washed away in Haridwar due to heavy rainfall. However, the viral visuals do not depict these recent floods. Some of the footage is old, and others are not from India. Let’s examine each video below.
These visuals are from the floods that hit Japan in 2021. A reverse image search of these viral visuals led us to a news report from 2021, which confirmed that these images are of the floods that affected the coastal city of Atami, southwest of Tokyo.
These visuals show floods in Uttarakhand but they are not related to recent events. A reverse image search revealed tweets by journalists who shared these same visuals in 2021 (here & here). According to these tweets, the images are from the floods in Chamoli, Uttarakhand, in 2021.
These are old visuals, possibly depicting the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011. A reverse image search directed us to a news report that shared the same visuals. According to the description, the visuals are related to the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
These are old visuals and are not connected to the recent floods in Uttarakhand. A reverse image search revealed social media posts from May 2024 that shared the same visuals. These posts attributed the footage to Kolkata’s Hugli River.
To sum up, old and unrelated visuals are being shared attributing them to the recent flash floods in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
