A group of people sitting with a placard that reads, "No road on Indo-China border" is fake and the words have been morphed on the placard. The photo is being shared with the misleading claim that the NGO - Citizens For Green Doon has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against road construction on the India-China border.
This is being shared in the backdrop of the Supreme Court considering two separate applications moved by the Ministry Of Defence (MoD) and the Ministry Of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to increase the width of three key hill roads in Uttarakhand to a double-lane carriageways with a width of 7 metres each (or 7.5 metre where there is a raised kerb). The width of these roads cannot be more than 5.5 metre as per a September 2020 order passed by the Supreme Court.
The Centre's application was opposed by the petitioner - Citizens for Green Doon, citing environmental concerns that have made the Char Dham project to link the four prominent Hindu pilgrimage sites, a contentious one over concerns of severe ecological damage raised by several experts reported Hindustan Times. The court had reserved its judgement on November 11, 2021, observing, "There is no such defence versus environment argument at all… You have to balance both concerns."
The photo was tweeted by the handle (@drapr007) with the caption, "#Shameful : A NGO name "Citizens For Green Doon" has filed a petition in the Supreme Court urging to stop the construction of roads on the Indo-China border in Uttarakhand citing the environment. NGO's lawyer Coulin Gonzales & Md Aftab said-"during the war army can use air route""
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BOOM has previously debunked misinformation tweeted by the same handle.
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The same photo was also tweeted by the Twitter handle Kreately and quote tweeted by former BJP IT Cell head and ex CEO of MyGovIndia Arvind Gupta.
The same edited photo is being shared on Facebook with the false claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral photo is morphed and the text - "No road on Indo-China border" has been edited onto the original placard. The placard actually has the name of the NGO on it - "Come join CFGD" (Citizens For Green Doon)
A simple reverse image search led us to the Facebook group - Citizens For Green Doon which had the original photo as its cover image. It was posted in April 2021.
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Ira Chauhan, a member of Citizens For Green Doon and one of the admins of the Facebook group also posted on the morphed photo stating, "spreading hatred and lies is child's play these days with photoshopped pictures and catchy tweets. A false and malicious campaign is underway against CFGD with morphed picture and concocted lies..."
She further added that the NGO is not against the construction of border roads saying, "... The tweet wrongly attributes a statement to our counsel Colin Gonsalves. It further tries to give our case a communal colour by making up a fictitious counsel Mohd Aftab. CFGD has no counsel by that name nor do we know any person by that name."
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Additionally, according to reports on the petition filed by CFGD, it has not opposed road construction but against road widening citing environmental concerns. In 2018, the road expansion project was challenged by an NGO for its potential impact on the Himalayan ecology due to felling trees, cutting hills and dumping muck (excavated material) and The Supreme Court had formed a high-powered committee (HPC) under environmentalist Ravi Chopra to examine the issues reported The Indian Express.
A comparison of the original and the viral photo shows that the photo is morphed and words on the placard have been edited on it to make the false claim.
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