No, this is not a video of an elephant trampling a man to death in India

The video, including this version, was posted to Facebook on January 9, 2019, with a caption saying: “Sad! But what an absolute idiot!! This man wanted to take a selfie with an Elephant yesterday in Masinagudi....he was killed!”

Masinagudi, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is home to a tiger reserve known as ‘Mudumalai National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary.’

Below is a screenshot of the post:

Image

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post

The video was posted multiple times on Facebook with similar claims, for example here. 

The misleading posts have also been shared on Twitter, for example here, and on YouTube here. 

However, a reverse image search of screenshots from the video traced the footage back to news reports from Sri Lanka a few days earlier.

Sri Lankan media outlet News First posted the video here on January 5, 2019, saying the incident took place in Yala National Park.

They also posted it on their YouTube channel the same day:

Multiple other media, including local site Hiru News which posted the video on YouTube January 5, 2019, and British newspapers the Mirror here and The Sun here, also reported on the incident, which they also said happened at Yala National Park in Sri Lanka.

Newsflare, a media group that  licenses viral and breaking news videos to international news organisations, also posted the video on its website here with the same details about it occurring in Sri Lanka. 

Sri Lankan police told AFP that the video was of an incident that happened on December 18, 2018 at the Yala National Park.

Police Chief Inspector Upul Liyanagama said the victim was identified as Labunusinghe Arachchige Susantha, 41, who was declared dead on arrival at the Kataragama hospital at 4:15pm on December 18, 2018.

According to Kataragama hospital records reviewed by AFP, Judicial Medical Officer P. W. Ajith Kumara concluded that the death was due to multiple injuries consistent with a wild elephant attack.