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Fact Check: Image from Nepal falsely circulated as Uttarakhand children going to school using wire bridge

An image of a group of school kids swinging a cable bridge on their own to reach school is circulating online with the claim that it is from the state of Uttarakhand.

Fact Check: Image from Nepal falsely circulated as Uttarakhand children going to school using wire bridge
Fact Check: Image from Nepal falsely circulated as Uttarakhand children going to school using wire bridge

An image of a group of school kids swinging a cable bridge on their own to reach school is circulating online with the claim that it is from the state of Uttarakhand. Seeing the ordeal of the kids who are risking their lives for education, netizens are criticising the Central government for neglecting the education sector.

The Hindi caption to one such image posted on Twitter translates in English as, “These pictures are of the same country where a grand temple is being built at a cost of crores. This is a picture of Uttarakhand children going to school and our country is moving towards bullet train?”

India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be false. The kids in the image are swinging rope across the Trishuli river in Dhading village of Nepal and the picture is not from Uttarakhand.

The archived versions of the posts can be seen here ( ), here and here.

AFWA probe

It is a fact that many villages of Uttarakhand lack proper bridges and students are forced to use dangerous ropeways to reach school. However, a ropeway where children have to hang themself on a hook to cross the river as seen in the image is not a common sight in Uttarakhand.

With a reverse image search, we found that the viral image is from a village in Nepal.

The image was carried by several news reports since 2013 that discusses the ordeal faced by children in Nepal to reach school.

According to a 2016 article by The Telegraph which has also carried a similar image, the viral image is from Dhading village in the Benighat district of central Nepal, There are several such wire crossings across the roaring Trishulil river in Benighat district, says the report.

According to an Al Jazeera report, more than 50 children use this crossing every day. The report further says many children fall into the water or trap their fingers while crossing the river using a hook.

We also found YouTube videos of the same wire crossing.

However, according to a 2018 report, suspension bridges have now replaced 10 of the 11 wire bridges over Trishuli River in the Benighat district of Nepal, including the ones in Dhading village.

However, the viral image of children crossing the wire bridge using a hook is from Nepal, and not Uttarakhand as the claim alongside the picture suggests.

Fact Check: Image from Nepal falsely circulated as Uttarakhand children going to school using wire bridge
Fact Check: Image from Nepal falsely circulated as Uttarakhand children going to school using wire bridge
Fact Check: Image from Nepal falsely circulated as Uttarakhand children going to school using wire bridge

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