2017 Photo Of Gujarat Floods Shared As Effect Of Heavy Rains In Chennai

An old photo of flooded Ahmedabad, showing people waiting in a queue to collect drinking water has surfaced on social media with a false claim that it shows the effect of recent heavy rainfall in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Schools and colleges in Chennai and 22 other districts are shut following intense rainfall and waterlogging on November 7, 2021. Predicting heavy rainfall on November 8, the IMD has issued an orange alert in 14 districts of Tamil Nadu. According to reports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Chief Minister MK Stalin on November 7 to discuss the situation in wake of the heavy rainfall.

In this backdrop, the photograph has been tweeted by SR Sekhar, state treasurer of BJP, Tamil Nadu, with the caption, "Chennai became a swimming pool due to the rain all day."

(Original Text in Tamil: விடியல்_ஆட்சி யில் ஒரே நாள் மழையில் நீச்சல்குளம் ஆன சென்னை)

Click here to see an archive of the post.

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Fact Check

BOOM did a reverse image search and found the same photo on a Hindustan Times article published on August 30, 2017. The caption of the photo reads, "People stand in a queue to collect drinking water from a municipal tanker at a flooded residential colony in Ahmedabad." The photo has been credited to news agency PTI.

We also found the same photo on The Indian Express article published on July 31, 2017.

The photo can be found on old photo archives of PTI News. The image was clicked on July 29, 2017 as per its description.

The PTI news caption with the photo reads as, "Ahmedabad: People stand in a queue to collect drinking water from a municipal tanker at a flooded residential colony, in Ahmedabad on Saturday."

The articles reported about the unexpected heavy rainfall in the state in 2017. According to The Indian Express report, "This year, the farmers are in misery again. Their crops and homes washed away as incessant torrential rain hit the central and north Gujarat. Rivers swelled, dams overflowed, canals breached, and the downpour continued. By July 21, the state had received almost half (45.90 per cent) of the entire season's average rainfall, and in the next seven days the state received a quarter of the season's rainfall (26.57 per cent). The huge volume of downpour concentrated for a few days and in few districts took everyone by surprise, from ordinary citizens to those in the state administration."

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