Huraa Council: True facts sought for documentary, although false information was aired

K. Huraa Council has raised concerns over the false information aired regarding the island’s mangrove in the most recent episode of Bear Grylls’ documentary.

Speaking to Sun regarding that matter, Kuraa Council President Easa Ahmed told that this is of great concern to Huraa residents.

“They did seek true facts regarding the mangrove. But at the last minute – this is all lies. We are even hearing for the first time that there are snakes and crocodiles living in the mangroves. All these days, such a frightening thing has not been observed,” he had said.

Easa said that they are stunned that false information was aired after seeking true facts, and have no idea what to further say to that.

The latest episode of British survival expert’s documentary, ‘Into the Wild’, shows two areas in the Maldives; the mangrove in K. Huraa and the shipwreck area in Vaavu Atoll.

After nearing the mangroves in an MNDF’s coastguard vessel – Grylls claims that dangerous animals such as crocodiles and snakes live there. Nevertheless, such dangerous animals have not been observed from the area in the history of Maldives.

During the documentary, Grylls also claims that the mangrove is three miles long. However, a mangrove of that length does not exist in the Maldives.

Afterward, Grylls shows a map of Huraa’s mangrove. According to this map, there is only a 1-mile distance between Huraa’s mangrove at Vaavu Atoll’s shipwreck. This makes it clear that this is not a legitimate map of the Maldives. In reality, there is a 60-mile distance between Huraa’s mangrove and Vaavu Atoll’s shipwreck.

As per the documentary, Grylls and his partner “swim” to the shipwreck from the mangrove.

Whilst snorkeling near the shipwreck – Grylls has spotted a tuna can. Although this was an open tin type of tuna can – he claims that the object is over 20 years old. He also added that the tuna can was cat food. However, Maldives only began to manufacture open tin type of tuna cans very recently.

Throughout the whole documentary, till its end – Grylls does not state that it was filmed at locations in the Maldives. Instead, he refers to the locations as "somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean."

A previous episode of Into the Wild, shot on an inhabited island in Vaavu Atoll also garnered much criticism for false information. During this episode, Grylls had claimed that there were snakes on the island.