The big cat flinches but the bear moves away without confronting the tiger.
When you go to a national park, or on a wild safari, the foremost thought on your mind is to see a tiger, often referred to as the “god of the jungle”. Wild encounters are the most sought after by wildlife enthusiasts as well as tourists.
One such video is going viral on social media which shows the moment a sloth bear comes face-to-face with a tiger. The video of the brief encounter, which took place at Tadoba Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra, has been shared by Indian Forest Services (IFS) officer Saket Badola.
"Greetings, of a slightly different kind," Mr Badola said in the Twitter caption posted along with the video.
It shows the big at sitting in the middle of a path inside the tiger reserve and a black bear comes there walking along the path. When the two animals see each other, the bear stands up and even jumps to scare the tiger.
The big cat, looking ready to attack, flinches but the bear moves away without confronting the tiger and the video ends there.
The video has been shot by Naman Agarwal and also posted on the Facebook page of one of the lodges in the Tadoba reserve.
The encounter has delighted the internet. "That was a giant greeting," said one of the users on Twitter.
On Facebook, a user compared the two animals to “Baloo and Sher Khan” from the popular television series The Jungle Book. Baloo, a bear, saves Mowgli, the human child, from the vicious tiger, Sher Khan.
The Tadoba Tiger Reserve, a protected forest, is spread across 625 square kilometres in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra.
The sanctuary has been shattered by hostile coal mines that surround it on at least two sides.