A group of tourists on a wildlife safari have been charged down by a wild tiger in terrifying footage.
During the incident, which a guest captured on video, the tiger is seen emerging from the bush as it tried to charge down the jeep rolling through the Jim Corbett Tiger reserve in India's northern Uttarakhand state.
It wasn't until one member of the party cried out that the beast stopped itself.
After Indian Forest Service official Susanta Nanda shared the "harrowing" video on Twitter, some wildlife experts said the big cat may have been performing a "mock charging" because the jeep had come too close.
Big cat photographer Harsha Narasimhamurthy said: “In this case, the tiger was maybe trying to cross the road and when these guys came too close, it was a sudden reaction of the tiger.”
While saying it would be wise to give angry tigers a wide berth, he told The Independent: "Some individuals have a bad temperament and some are pretty aggressive, so understanding their behaviour, and knowing them pretty well can help.”
Mr Narasimhamurthy said many of the tigers at the location have become more comfortable with jeeps coming close to them because of the amount of visitors.
Camilla Malvestiti, who also photographs wildlife and works as a tiger safari mentor, said the tiger was performing a "mock charge" that is not "real" aggression".
A number of wildlife parks have nicknamed some of their bolshy tigers "charger" for similar displays.
Several social media users said the blame should lay with the tourists.
The man who shared the footage said: "Striped monk gets irritated. What will you do if at every designated hour people crash into your house as their matter of right?”
Founder of The Sacred Saka - an eco-tourism agency for wildlife lovers - Aahana Patole, said that problems like this arise from guides failing to give their crowds instructions.
“Some tigers don’t care, usually cubs and tigers that aren’t used to crowds as such they get irritated [by the jeeps and tourists]. Tourism isn’t bad, the crowd travelling there should have basic etiquette,” she said.
“The main thing is that they should understand that jungles are not zoos. If strict fines are imposed, these people would never make a single noise.”
Mr Narasimhamurthy told The Independent that the guide actually responded correctly in this situation, preventing the tiger from gaining momentum by shouting and scaring it off, by "break[ing] the confidence".
The number of tigers in India has increased from 2,967 in 2018 to 3,167 in 2022 -making up more than three quarters of the world's tiger population.
