A lioness attacked a man and pinned him down on a village road in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district on Sunday before letting him go, forest officials said on Monday.
The attack was caught on camera and widely circulated on social media.
The viral footage shows the lion pinning the man to the ground next to a parked pickup truck. The victim, who appeared to be bleeding, remained still throughout the ordeal and at one point even gently reached out to touch the big cat in a bid to calm it.
While villagers could be heard shouting from a distance and throwing stones at the lioness, no one dared to approach them during the attack.
After several tense minutes, the lioness released the man and walked toward a nearby cattle shelter, leaving him alone.
The injured man, later identified as Kalubhai Parmar, was initially admitted to a local government hospital in Palitana before being shifted to Bhavnagar. Forest officials said he is out of danger.
A statement issued by the Palitana range forest office said the incident took place in the district’s Garajiya village on the morning of July 6, when some villagers spotted the lioness and raised an alarm.
Officials said the lion attempted to flee the spot and injured a person in the process. The injured person is currently undergoing treatment.
The forest department also praised the injured man for his “extraordinary courage, patience, presence of mind and mental composure”, saying this ensured the situation did not become more serious.
The forest department has initiated measures to capture the lion and has appealed to people not to harass it, not to attempt to spot it or drive it away on their own, and to contact the forest department immediately if they sight it.
Forest officials said the lioness hunted an animal in the Dharwada area near Sonpari village on July 5 before moving into Garajiya village, which falls within its regular movement corridor.
The incident comes on the heels of five human deaths linked to lion attacks in June, including two suspected cases currently under investigation.
The forest department said the incident reflected the long history of coexistence between people and Asiatic lions in the Greater Gir landscape, where the Maldhari community has lived alongside the animals for generations.
The injured man was a member of the Maldhari pastoral community from Garajiya village.
Experts have attributed the rise in such incidents to a combination of factors, including lions dispersing beyond the core Gir landscape, illegal lion shows and harassment of the animals, and growing encroachment around protected areas that has shrunk the buffer between lions and human settlements.
A delayed monsoon has also prolonged the summer heat, officials said, making the animals more irritable and prone to attack when disturbed by or brought into contact with humans.
Gujarat’s Asiatic lion population stood at 891 as per the 2025 census, up from 674 in 2020, with a growing number of lions dispersing from the core Gir landscape into surrounding revenue and human-dominated areas over the years.