Number 8 Saheb Saheb, an elderly man from the Indian state
of Telangana, suffered gruesome injuries to his skull after he was charged by a sloth
bear.
The animal had wandered into the village of Nagaram from a nearby forest and started attacking
a herd of cattle.
Saheb and other locals tried to chase away the beast.
As the bear turned on the crowd, it focused its attention on the 70-year-old.
It clawed and bit his head, peeling the skin back and inflicting a deep gash that traversed
the top of his skull.
The villagers were eventually successful in driving the animal back into the forest.
Saheb was taken to a hospital where he required several surgeries to remove skull fragments
that had become embedded in his brain.
What Is It?
Sloth bears are strong and athletic animals, distinguishable by their shaggy coats, which
are usually completely black in color.
Their fur is particularly heavy behind the shoulders and neck, forming a type of mane
that effectively protects the animal during combat.
The sloth bear was named after its long, curved claws and unusual teeth.
Since it lacks upper incisors, it can easily suck up termites and other insects.
The bear often has a white V or Y-shaped mark on its chest, believed to serve as a warning
for potential predators.
Aware of the bear’s physical prowess, predators will often avoid attacking one if it’s facing
them.
Sloth bears are good swimmers and great climbers.
Exceptional male specimens may grow to be up to 423 pounds, meaning they weigh about
as much as the Bengal tigers with which they’re sympatric.
The sloth bear is a notoriously aggressive animal that will readily maul, kill and even
eat humans.
It’s among the most dangerous bear species in the natural world and aggressive encounters
are frequently reported.
Number 7 Prabhu Bhatara In May of 2018, taxi driver Prabhu Bhatara
was driving guests home from a wedding, in the eastern Indian province of Odisha.
As Bhatara spotted a sloth bear by the roadside, he decided to take a selfie with it.
Others in the vehicle reportedly advised him not to approach the dangerous animal.
Bhatara refused to heed their warnings and got close to the bear.
As he was approaching it, he slipped and, within moments, the bear was on top of him.
One person tried to rescue Bhatarra by striking the animal with a wooden staff.
Others tried throwing various things at it.
Unfortunately, the bear couldn’t be deterred and mauled the taxi driver to death.
Forest officials had to tranquilize the animal in order to retrieve the man’s body.
Number 6 Attack near Khapra Village Within a few days, a sloth bear claimed three
lives and injured several forest officers near Khapra village, in the Indian state of
Gujarat.
Two villagers, Bhikha Bhagora and Mana Angari, failed to return a couple of days after going
into the forest to graze their goats.
Two of their friends got worried and ventured inside the woods to look for them.
Unbeknownst to the search party, Bhagora and Angari had already been killed by a sloth
bear.
The beast started circling the search party as well, but they lit a fire to scare it off
and managed to escape.
The fire then turned into a large blaze so four forest officers were sent in to get it
under control.
They too were attacked by the sloth bear.
One of them was killed while the others sustained severe injuries.
The bodies of Bhagora and Angari were subsequently retrieved and had deep bites on their chest
and scalp.
Where Is It Located?
The sloth bear is located throughout the Indian subcontinent.
The nominate species is the most widespread Indian bear and usually lives in areas with
forest cover.
In Nepal, these creatures are mainly restricted to the Terai lowland region.
The Sri Lankan, smaller subspecies of sloth bear currently inhabits the northern and eastern
lowlands.
Its range, which used to include most of Sri Lanka, has been constrained by the massive
convergence of forests into tea and coffee plantations.
Sloth bears are expert hunters of termites and ants, for which they’ll dig using their
massive claws.
Their sense of smell is so refined that they can detect grubs up to 3 feet below ground.
They’re known to supplement their diet with fruits, flowers or honey, of which they’re
extremely fond.
They may also consume carrion and, occasionally, other mammals.
Sloth bears are generally solitary, but mothers travel with cubs on their backs until the
offspring reach about a third of the mother’s size.
Mating pairs might travel together during breeding season and males have often been
observed being gentle with cubs.
Number 5 Somanna A sloth bear attack in the remote Indian village
of Madhugiri claimed the life of one man and left another severely injured.
Upon encountering the bear near his property, a 45-year-old farmer, fearing for his life,
attacked it with a machete.
The man, only identified as Somanna, was swiftly brought to the ground.
The bear mauled him to death and, afterwards, started eating his body.
Somanna’s screams of agony had alerted villagers nearby.
They started throwing stones at the bear, in hopes of chasing it away.
The sloth bear, however, charged at the crowd and savaged a manual worker.
The man was left with lacerations on his limbs, body and face but survived the attack.
The police was called and ultimately shot the bear.
Yet, in the hours leading up to their arrival, the sloth bear didn’t leave Somanna’s
body and would occasionally take bites out of it.
How Will It Kill You?
Since they share their territory with some of the most dangerous beasts on the planet,
sloth bears need to become proficient fighters early on.
They’ve evolved to resort to pure aggression when dealing with threats, rather than opting
to flee.
Tigers are their most common natural enemies and confrontations occur rather frequently.
Some tigers become specialized sloth bear predators.
Yet, if the felines can’t ambush them, they’ll usually give adults a wide berth.
Both elephants and rhinos have no tolerance for the presence of sloth bears in their vicinity
and are known to actively charge them.
Even against such formidable beasts, sloth bears will sometimes choose to stand their
ground.
When it comes to conflicts with humans, in terms of raw data, sloth bears attack people
more regularly than any other bear.
One Indian district reports roughly the same number of annual sloth bear fatalities as
all of the world’s brown bears combined.
While lacking incisors, they own massive canines that can inflict horrifying injuries.
Their paws are disproportionately large and feature blunt, sickle-like claws that grow
to be 4 inches long.
The bears can sprint faster than humans and are remarkably resistant to body shots, so
they’ll often keep charging after being fired upon.
A sloth bear mauling is, by all accounts, incredibly brutal.
The beast will go straight for your face, repeatedly biting and clawing at it.
Even if the bear doesn’t kill you, the chances are high you’ll walk away horribly disfigured.
Number 4 Sakamma In May of 2020, an elderly woman was mauled
and blinded in one eye by a sloth bear that had attacked her in front of her house, in
the city of Channapatna.
The victim, identified as Sakamma, had barely come out the front door, when the beast started
mauling her.
The attack was so brutal that one of the woman’s eyes was gouged out and fell on the ground.
The bear was spotted by other locals, who alerted forest officers.
It retreated but the authorities cautioned residents to remain inside until the animal
would be apprehended.
It’s believed that it had been attracted to the city by the smell of rotting mangoes
from a dump site.
Sakamma was expected to survive the attack, but the damage to her vision was irrepairable.
Number 3 Pinky Baiga A brutal sloth bear attack left teenager Pinky
Baiga with deep gashes and marks on her head.
Shortly before she was charged by the beast, the 17-year-old was gathering firewood near
a national park in central India.
As she was carrying the wood atop her head, she came face to face with the animal.
The sloth bear bit and clawed Baiga and it nearly scalped her before running away.
She spent 11 days in the hospital and required multiple stitches to close her wounds.
According to local tradition, Baiga was approaching the age of marriage.
Unfortunately, the bear attack left her so traumatized that, even months later, she could
barely leave her bed.
How to Survive?
Sloth bears attack swiftly and without warning so outrunning them isn’t really an option.
If a sloth bear takes you to the ground, one course of action is to assume the fetal position
while protecting your face and neck.
Keep your elbows and forearms tight against your chest and stomach.
If you choose to fight back, use your legs and forearms to create distance while striking
the bear’s eyes and muzzle.
Both fighting as well as assuming a defensive position come with the risk of death or severe
injury.
Therefore, avoidance is essential.
Bears generally attack if surprised, threatened or in defense of their cubs.
Always carry bear spray and make noise while travelling through the forest.
Even if you’re familiar with the area, it’s best to travel in a group or with an armed
guide.
If you see the sloth bear charging towards you, make yourself look bigger and start shouting.
Back away slowly and never give your back to the beast.
Number 2 Jube Valanti Adveppache While working his mushroom fields in southern
India, Jube Valanti Adveppache was attacked by a sloth bear.
For three hours Adveppache fought the beast which would sporadically break off its attack
before charging him again.
The man sustained massive cuts to his face.
The bear only retreated once it believed the farmer was dead.
However, the man not only survived but managed to walk three miles, while bleeding heavily,
and find help.
According to the latest reports, doctors were amazed by the speed
of his recovery.
Number 1 Black Bear of Mysore The Black Bear of Mysore was a vicious man-eating
sloth bear that terrorized a region of India, in 1957.
The beast started attacking villages in the Mysore State both day and night.
It killed at least 12 people and severely mauled many others.
Some of the victims lost their noses, eyes or ears.
Those who died had their faces completely torn from their heads.
Legends started circulating that the bear sought revenge on humans that, in the past,
had taken its cubs.
Kenneth Anderson, the renowned hunter who killed the bear, believed that it had previously
been injured by villagers and its aggression increased as a defensive response.
He described the man eating sloth bear as having had the “Mark of Cain”.
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