Video of Karnataka’s Jog Falls shared as Athirappilly waterfalls of Kerala amid rain in the state

This video shows Jog Falls located in Karnataka.

IMD has issued a heavy rainfall alert for Kerala on July 13-14. A yellow alert has been issued for several states. Amidst this a video of a huge waterfall is being shared online with the claim that it shows Athirappilly water falls in Kerala that swelled up after receiving rainfall.

The caption states “This is Athirapilly water falls in Chalakudi near Thrissur, Kerala. Rains have made this look like Niagara Falls. Snap taken 3 days back. It’s called the Niagara Falls of India”.

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Fact Check- 

Our investigation began with a reverse image search of a screenshot from the viral video, which indicated that it had previously been posted on social media by several people. Eric Solheim, president of the Green Belt and Road Institute, tweeted the same video on 10 July, 2022 with the description, “This is not Niagara Falls. Jog Falls is located in the Shimoga district of Karnataka, India.

In further search we came across similar video on the official YouTube channel of Incredible India, an international tourism campaign by the Indian Ministry of Tourism with the title “Jog Falls | Karnataka”. 

In further search we found the same video uploaded on a YouTube channel on 23 November 2019 with a caption “jog falls in Karnataka”

Jog Falls is a waterfall on the Sharavati River located in Siddapura taluk, Uttara Kannada District and its view point located in Shimoga district of Karnataka. It is the second highest plunge waterfall in India falling from a height of 253 meters. In comparison, Athirappilly Falls in Chalakudy, Kerala are smaller and fall from a height of 80 meters.

Visual of Athirappilly falls available on the Kerala Tourism website

Taking account of these evidences we can clearly understand that the viral video has been available on the internet since 2019. This video has also gone viral in the past as well and was wrongly attributed to different waterfalls across the country.

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. The viral video shows Jog falls of Karnataka. It does not show Athirappilly waterfall in Kerala amid recent heavy rains in the state.