Many roads in India run through forested areas, so encountering a wild animal is nothing new. The internet is splashed with several videos showing close encounters of humans with lions and tigers, which can be both scary and fascinating to watch. On Wednesday, Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer and wildlife enthusiast, Susanta Nanda shared a video that showed two men on a bike having a close encounter with a tiger on a road running through a forest.
Mr. Nanda shared the video and wrote, "As long as one doesn't have a back gear in the bike, use common sense in the back of your mind & drive slow in wild habitats. Via Ramesh Pandey."
Watch the video here:
As long as one doesn't have a back gear in the bike, use common sense in the back of your mind & drive slow in wild habitats.
— Susanta Nanda IFS (@susantananda3) December 21, 2022
Via Ramesh Pandey. pic.twitter.com/7fBnwJUJiH
The video opens to show a tiger crossing a road when a speeding bike with two riders comes face-to-face with the wild animal. With the tiger just a few metres away from them, the driver of the bike slowly starts moving backward. Luckily for them, the tiger didn't attack them and goes back into the forest after a few seconds. The video appears to be shot by someone in a car who had already stopped to let the tiger cross.
The video shared on Wednesday has garnered over 87,000 views, and more than 2600 likes. Many appreciated the bikers and the car driver for remaining calm, and not provoking the tiger.
One user wrote, "Luckily they didn't provoke the animal by honking or trying to drive past it." Another wrote, ''The ideal way at least in these zones is to wait for the vehicle in front to pass. If he is waiting then you also need to wait behind and not just overtake. He is lucky and not it's lunch, fortunately.'' A third said, '' The bikers would have been at risk had the other vehicle not been on its side'' Another commented, ''The way he kept his cool!!! Striped monk for a reason.''
Another person raised the demand for wildlife corridors and wrote, "@nitin_gadkari @MORTHIndia kindly elevate these roads so this kind of interaction is eliminated completely and the animals can roam without being disturbed..we encroached their lands not the other way around so kindly elevate the road".
India is home to the world's largest tiger population, which is threatened by a loss of habitat as well as poachers. With increasing human encroachment into their reserves, conflicts between humans and tigers are inevitable.
