Video shows waterfall death in Indonesia, not in India

This article is more than one year old.
Published on September 5, 2023 at 10:57
3 min read
By Anuradha PRASAD, Gemma CAHYA, AFP India

A video showing a tree falling down a waterfall and slamming into bathers below has been viewed thousands of times in social media posts that falsely claim that the tragedy took place in India. The clip in fact originated from Indonesia, where authorities confirmed to AFP that the incident claimed one life in February 2023.

The footage was shared on Facebook on August 21, 2023, where it has been viewed more than 200 times.

The post's Hindi-language caption reads: "Watch how a rock fell on people taking a bath under a waterfall in Uttarakhand's Chamoli," referring to a district in the northern Indian state.

"Maybe they did not survive. Chamoli police have urged people not to bathe under any waterfall during the rainy season."

Screenshot of the false post, taken on September 5, 2023

The clip was uploaded shortly after India's Himalayan state of Uttarakhand suffered large-scale destruction caused by landslides and torrential downpours.

As of August 15, 2023, at least 65 people had died due to landslides in Uttarakhand, AFP reported. At least another 52 were killed in the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh state within the span of a few days, the report said.

The same video has been viewed more than 2,200 times after it circulated alongside a similar claim on Facebook here and here, as well as on X, formerly known as Twitter here and here.

The clip was initially shared by Chamoli district police on its official X account on August 20, 2023, with a Hindi caption saying: "Refrain from bathing under mountain waterfalls during the rainy season" (archived link).

But Chamoli police told AFP they made no claim about the location of the incident and that the clip was posted purely to warn locals of the dangers present during India's monsoon season.

“It was just an awareness post, we did not say it is from Chamoli,” one officer told AFP on August 24, 2023.

Incident in Indonesia

A combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found the video appeared in news report by JTV Kediri, a broadcaster based in Indonesia's East Java province, on February 15, 2023 (archived link).

It is titled: "NGANJUK - Tourist Dies While Bathing Under Sedudo Waterfall."

According to the report, the amateur video captured the moments when a landslide, mixed with tree branches, fell on five tourists at the Sedudo waterfall in Nganjuk regency, East Java, one day earlier, killing one person and injuring four others.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the false post (left) and the genuine video from JTV Kediri (right):

Screenshot comparison between the video in the false post (left) and the genuine video from JTV Kediri (right)

Other Indonesian outlets such as Tempo.co and Tribunnews also used the clip in their reports about the fatal incident at the Sedudo waterfall (archived links here and here).

Abdul Wakid, head of the Nganjuk Disaster Mitigation Agency, confirmed to AFP that the footage was taken at the Sedudo waterfall.

"It was not a landslide, what happened was that a tree growing on the edge of a cliff fell down from a height of 80 metres," he told AFP on August 24, 2023. "It happened on February 14. One person died."

The Nganjuk local government also issued a statement on February 20, 2023, saying that the waterfall would be closed for several days following the death of a tourist (archived link).

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